Legacy of the Wind
by Hoshi Tsuiraku
Summary: PART FIVE
1. Default Chapter Title

**.:Legacy of the Wind:.  
PART FIVE: THE RAGE OF WAR  
** By: Hoshi-chan

Night was falling as the sky grew dark. Jessica and Kayura had still not awoken and the group had become worried if the two would ever wake up. Kento stood, leaning against a window and looking out into the sky.

"Guys!! Hey, guys!" Dais said to the rest of the group. "It's Kayura... it looks like she's waking up!"

Kayura slowly fluttered her eyes open and looked up at the group. "H-hi..." she said softly.

"Kayura!! Oh, Kayura!! You're alright!!" the group said happily.

Kayura smiled at the group, then remembered about Jessica. She tried to sit up abruptly. "J-Jessica..." she said, looking around frantically for her. "Is - is she alright?"

Sage smiled. "Yes, she's going to be alright... although she doesn't seem to be waking up..."

"Oh, that's good..." Kayura said as she laid back down. "You know... when... when Jessica did that magic? That sword in the wall..."

"Y-yes, we know..." Sekhmet told her.

"But... how am I still alive? It went clear through me... a-and... yet... I'm still here... alive..." she trailed off.

"Yes, we know that, too. We are all healed. But, Jessica isn't awake to tell us what happened... so we are totally clueless right now..." Cye said.

"But... oh! Her leg!! She's injured!" Kayura exclaimed at the sight of Jessica's open cut and blood stained clothes.

"I guess she couldn't heal herself when she healed the rest of us. But, how did she heal us, kill all of the warriors, and not heal herself? I just do not understand...." she said, gazing out the window that Kento was leaning in.

"Yes, I know..." Ryo said thoughtfully. "Well, we'd better get moving, or we could get caught by troops again and since we're still very weak and all... well, let's just not get caught, ok guys?"

"Hmm?" said Kento, who was still looking out the window. He turned from the window and looked at Ryo. "Oh, yeah. Well, what are we wainting for?? Let's go!"

Sage and Rowen just rolled their eyes at Kento. "Will he ever get it through his head that this is not a game? We're not on a vacation, ya know," Sage commented.

"Yeah. But, you know Kento..." Rowen replied.

Ryo walked over and picked Jessica up, while Cye and Sekhmet helped Kayura up, each supporting her as the group made their way through the winding castle.

A while later, after the group had been searching for the exit for quite a while, about an hour at least, Ryo yelled out to the group. "Hey, guys! I think..... I think she's waking up!" he said as he bent over and gently laid her down on the floor.

Jessica groaned a little, and fluttered her eyes open slowly. Everyone... everything were just big blobs... everything just melted into the next thing. Her vision was blurry and the bright lights... which weren't very bright at all, gave her a headache as she groaned and tried to sit up, which just made her dizzy. She grabbed her head. "Ohhh... what happened?" she quietly said just above a whisper.

"Whoa, you mean... you mean to tell us that you don't remember, what happened? You don't remember a thing?"

"N-no......" she said, looking up at Cale with a puzzled and confused look on her face. "Wha - what are you talking about? All I know is that I have this splitting headache...... and my legs..... Oh! M - my legs!! What happened to them?" she cried as she saw the bloody mess.

"Jessica? Jessica!! Listen to me!" Cye said, trying to get her to listen. "We were in a battle... and everything looked bad. You got hurt badly and... well so did we. Kayura almost died. She had a sword go clear through her... we were almost done for." he said quietly.

"But... but then you came out, despite the pain from your legs and that you could hardly walk. You - you saved all of our lives..." Dais continued for him.

Jessica just stared at the ground through her hands as a tear slid down her cheek. "I - I... all I remember is... and... Oh, I just don't..." she said and started crying. "I remember some of it now, I remember watching all of you and... hurt badly... you were all hurt very badly and Kayura... and I knew that I had to do something... Hei No San..." she whispered.

"Hei... what?" Mia asked.

"Hei No San..." Jessica trailed off and looked up to the group. "It - it's a power that I have... inherited from my... mother? I... I'm not completely sure just yet. It takes all of the damage inflicted upon the mystical armor and their wearers and is paid back double to each individual evil warrior. But... it only works on outside mortals... such as yourselves. I am a mortal, but all of my inherited powers can not be used on me, except for my one which I use only when I have a respectable amount of energy left..."

"That sucks... but.. you're still very weak..." Sage said sadly.

Jessica smiled weakly. "Yes, as so are all of you. My powers can only heal your outside wounds, not restore energy lost during battle, unfortunately." she tried to explain.

"Thank you, Jessica. For risking your life to save us.... and... well, just thanks." Kento said as he leaned in and gave her a hug. Jessica smiled.

"You're welcome..." she said back. "No problem. And I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat if I had to without thinking about it twice....."

"And you can bet that we'd do the same for you." Rowen said.

"Well, guys, sorry, but we've got to get out of here before any other warriors discover us here and we get caught off guard." Ryo said seriously, standing up and looking out the window at the lightening sky, which was turning shades of gold in the morning sunlight.

Rowen and Cale bent down to help Jessica up. They helped her as she limped along with the group through hallways and such until they found a safe spot. Just then, Jessica notived that Magic was missing. She looked around frantically. "Magic? Magic!! Where's Magic?" she asked.

"Magic? Oh! Um well I haven't seen him since...... since...... we left for the battle. Ohh no! I hope he hasn't hurt himself or gotten lost!" Mia said sympathetically.

"Oh, Magic......." Jessica said sadly. "I hope that........ I hope that he didn't.... he didn't....." she needn't need to finish the rest of the sentence for they all knew what she was thinking.

"Hey, Sage," Kento called to Sage. "You can heal people, right? Well, then, why don't you heal Jessica's leg?? It has already stopped bleeding so it shouldn't be that hard to heal......." he suggested.

"Oh, would you, please, Sage? I'd heal myself, but I can barely stand up...... and I am so weak...." she said.

"That's not a half bad idea......." Sage said, walking up to Jessica. He kneeled down next to her leg and proceeded to try to heal the deep cut. But, Sage tried his hardest to heal her legs, but he was just too weak still from the last battle, and he nearly fainted. Cye caught him and helped support him so he wouldn't fall.

"C'mon, guys. Let's get out of here before anything else happens." Ryo said to the group.

"Yeah, good idea," the warlords agreed as the group made their way down winding stairs and dark cooridors.

"Thanks, Sage, I know you tried your best........" Jessica said as she winced from pain from her leg.

"You ok?? No problem." He half smiled at her.

"Ya, sure, I'm fine. It's just....... when you have your leg half cut off, it tends to hurt a little sometimes." she tried to joke.

"Yeah...."

When they reached the bottom of the stairs where the entrance they came in through was supposed to be, they discovered that it wasn't there.

"Where did the entrance go?" Kayura said, looking around with a confused look. "It was........ right here, wasn't it?"

Sekhmet and Dais stopped walking and looked around also. "You're...... right." Dais said.

"Could this be some..... trick? Or illusion?" Sekhmet wondered out loud.

"Probably so," Kento said. "But, maybe we could try to..... to blast through a wall......" he suggested.

"That's not a bad idea, Kento." Cye praised. "It just might work! Let's give it our best shot!"

Rowen took Jessica as Cale joined Ryo, Kento, Sage, Sekhmet, and Dais. Dais set Kayura on the floor beside Jessica and Rowen before joinging up with the others.

The seven combined their powers with each other, what little power they had left, and tried to break through the wall.

"Thunderbolt Cut!"

"Super Wave Smasher!"

"Flare Up Now!"

"Iron Rock Crusher!"

"Snake Fang Strike!"

"Black Lighting Slash!"

"Web of Deception!"

They yelled as their attacks combined and formed one large super attack aimed directly at the wall. The attack surged through the wall, revealing the crowds of warriors huddled directly outside. The force from the attack itself knocked out half od the sitting ducks and the force of the exploding wall took out a third of what was left.

"Oh, man!" Rowen moaned. "This is just NOT one of those days.........."

Jessica winced as pain from her wounds surged through her entire body. She wsd in no condition to help the Ronin Warriors, the Warlords......... her friends. Rowen walked her over and sat her down in a safe place in the shadows where she would be safe and unseen.

"Stay here," he instructed as he turned and ran to to his friends, aiming his bow with arrows on his way.

Kayura stood up. "What are you doing?" Jessica said to her. Kayura just looked on straight ahead.

"I must go fight with them," she said bravely.

"But..... you are in no condition to fight now! You'd get yourself killed!" Jessica tried to reason with her.

"Yes, I realise that," she said, turning to smile sideways at Jessica, "but that's a chance we'll all have to take. If I don't help them, we'd surely loose this battle with no chance of winning whatsoever. This is for the best. Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself......." Kayura said as she jumped into the battle scene.

"No, Kayura! Wait....!" Jessica cried out to her. But it was too late and she was already gone. 'Good luck, Kayura. Ronins, Warlords. Good luck.' she said to them silently. Now all she did was pray for their safety and for their energy to be replenished in order for them to not fail. For them to win. Jessica wished that she could be out there helping them, but she couldn't stand up, let alone fight. She'd be an easy target for sure.

The first wave of warriors knocked Ryo, Sekhmet, and Sage down. Kenti grew furious and begin attacking them with all that he had. But everything was almost useless. They were jsut too weak still, eventhough Jessica had healed them with her magic and such.

Rowen ran into the battle, yelling "Arrow Shock Wave!" and released an arrow, knocking out the whole line of warriors ontop Sage, Ryo, and Sekhmet. They tried to get up while Rowen held them back with a wall of arrows, one after another. He succeeded to thin out the oncoming line a little, but not enough.

Kayura jumped into the midst of the battle and fought her way out of the closing circle. As a last, desperate attempt, she used her super move as Jessica heard her scream, "Quake With Fear!!" and the warriors were blown away from around her. But, the blows from the warriors, and the fact that she was still weak from the previous battle, left her weak and vulnerable. A warrior caught her offguard from behind and she fell softly and silently to the ground. Jessica watched it all as if it were in slow motion.

"Noooooo!! Kayura!!!" Jessica screamed to her from her hiding spot, unheard by the others. Jessica tried to hold back tears. "If only I...... I had tried to get her to listen to me......" she cried and tried to stand up. Pain surged up through her legs and body from the attempt. She fell back down onto the ground. "I must help them," she said, now crying, "But I can't! I can't......." she said, tears falling freely from her eyes and sparkling as they landed on the stone floor. Noone could hide the fact that it looked hopeless for the Ronins and Warlords.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of Jessica. She gasped. "Wh - Whitney?"

"Yes, 'tis I. I have come to forewarn you of Zagoto's evil power. I can not stay long. I am still on your side, though, and I always will be....." she said as she jumped out of sight. "Just remember that.........." she said and was gone.

"Nooo!! Come back.......!!" Jessica cried, reaching up for where Whitney had just been. "Come back...." she sobbed. 'Why do I always feel like this? It's like I'm not even controlling my body or wmotions at times.......'

Jessica looked back up to the raging battle. It had moved more outside the castle walls, leaving behind the victims fallen to the nine warriors. She strained to see any sign of the Ronin Warriors or Warlords. She just barely saw the two bodies of two of the Warlords laying lifelessly among the bodies of fallen warriors. She gasped upon seeing them.

"Oh, nooo!!" she wailed. "Dais!! Sekhmet!! Noo!" she cried out. There was noone to save them now. "It's...... hopeless......." she realised as she cried into her hands. Jessica struggled to crawl to her two friends that were so dear to her, despite the burning pain from her legs. She pushed her way slowly and painfully towards them, moving across dead bodies of the warriors and dodging their swords and daggers. When she was about halfway to them, she could clearly see the battle outside the crumbled castle walls. The remaining six were giving it all they had.

She continued to make her way to Dais and Sekhmet. When she finally reached them, her legs were bleeding freely again because of her long and painful crawl across the hard, rough castle floor. She was startled to find Dais still breathing and conscious, just hoarded with pain which was written all over his face.

"Dais........" Jessica cried. "Oh, Dais!" she hugged him but immeaditely let go when he screamed out in pain.

"I - I'm sorry, Jessica." he struggled to say.

"N-no!! Don't...... it's not your fault....." she exclaimed as tears streamed from her eyes and down her cheeks.

"T-take...... these........" Dais gasped and handed Jessica two small, sperical orbs.

"Your...... your transformation orbs......" she whispered as she realised why he had given them to her. "N-no!! Don't you even think for a minute that....... that you're going to leave us!! Leave me!!"

"J-Jessica...... take them...... I'm sorry........ and..... goodbye......" he said as his hand went limp and his head rolled over to it's side, his eyes softly closed.

"N-no!! Dais!!" she cried, desperately shaking him. "Dais! Come back!" she sobbed. "Oh, please..........."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Ryo and Rowen struggled to push the endless amount of warriors out through the hole in the wall. From the corner of his eye, Ryo saw a flash of metal coming towards Rowen's head. Ryo quickly swung his katana around in front of him, striking the warrior in front of him across his throat and knocked the flinging blade from Rowen's path.

"Whoa....." Rowen gasped as he realised how close his life had almost come to an end. But there was no time for thanks now, as the threat of the great ultimate battle with Zagoto grew and grew and became more realistic every day.

Sage jumped high into the air to dodge an attack thrown at him. He landed ontop the warrior and knocked it to the ground. He swung his arm around him, cutting into the surrounding warriors with his sword. He glanced up to see any chance that they ever had at winning diminish before his eyes as Cye and Kento both were struck and crumbeled in a heap to the ground.

"No!" Sage cried, blinking back tears. He rushed over to them and slashed at the warriors ontop them, punching and kicking his way through. Pure adrenelin. Shaking off the warriors on his back, he saw one charging at his with his sword. And with the warriors on his back, pinning him down, he couldn't dodge it. "Oh, no..... Ryo, Jessica, Kento, Cye......... Rowen, Kayura....... all you guys, I'm sorry........" he said and squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the moment to come. After the warrior was sure to strike him, Sage opened his eyes to see the warrior's sword just inches from his face. Sage gasped as the warrior sank to the ground, and the surrounding warriors as well, all with arrows protruding from their backs.

"T-thanks buddy....." Sage whispered to Rowen as he continued to battle off the warriors.

Cale ran over to where Cye and Kento were laying on the ground, unconscious but alive. He picked up Kento and ran with him to where Rowen had put Jessica earlier. But when he got there, he did not see her anywhere. "J-Jessica?" he cried, setting Kento down and scanning the room for her.

"Jessica! Where are....... oh, nooooo!!" he cried as his eyes fell on his three friends laying in a heap. "N-no!!" he cried and ran over to where Dais, Sekhmet, and Jessica were laying. Dais and Sekhmet were clearly dead. Cale tried to hold back tears as he learned of the loss of his two very dear friends. But..... Jessica?

"Jessica!" Cale said and shook her gently.

Jessica opened her light blue eyes and turned to look at Cale. Then she bursted into tears once again over the loss of her friends. Cale took her into his arms and tried to comfort her. "It - it's alright....." he tried to reassure her.

"N-no, it's not. It's all my fault. If only..... If I had just....... oh, it's my fault! I couldn't .......... I couldn't help them......." she sobbed into his chest.

"No! Jessica, this is not your fault. This was beyond your control. Beyond all of out control." He hugged her tighter before standing up. "I..... have to go back and get Cye. I'll be right back," he promised as he ran back into the battle, leaving a heartbroken Jessica sobbing behind. It hurt him so much to see her in this much pain, but he had to get Cye.

Jessica uncurled her hand which contained Dais's and Sekhmet's orbs. A tear fell onto one as she squeezed her eyes shut tight. After a moment, she balled her hand into a fist around the orbs and opened her eyes. Red-hot anger flashed through her eyes.

"Mark my words," she vowed, "Zagoto will NOT prevail, he will NOT win this battle. He will be defeated, and as long as I'm still here, he will NEVER win," she looked over at Sekhmet and Dais's bodies. "For you, Dais.... Sekhmet....."

Outside, Cale reached where Cye had been laying and expected the worst. But to his suprise, Cye was up and fighting, still throwing warriors off like it was an everyday thing, no effort needed.

Ryo looked around and noticed that the groups of warriors were finally thinning out, and they may have a chance at winning, after all.

They struggled their way through the rest of the warriors, battered, bruised, and bleeding. But they made it. All except for their dear loss of Dais and Sekhmet. And the almost near death of Kayura and Kento. Moreso the others were so weak and faint from the battle that they wearily stumbeled back to where Jessica and Kento were.

Jessica quietly slipped Dais and Sekhmet's transformation orbs into the side pouch on her knapsack. Cale told the others of Dais and Sekhmet's deaths, and the sadness spread through the group.

"N-no!! Kayura gasped in shock and suprise.

"I - I'm afriad so," Jessica weakly said.

"Their - their armor....... what'll happen to it?" Rowen asked.

"Their orbs..... Dais gave them to me...." she said, revealing the two small speres to the rest of the group.

"Jessica! Why don't you wear one of their armors?" Sage suggested.

"That's not possible," Mia told him. "You must remember that it is not the person who chooses the armor, but that it is the armor who chooses it's wearer. And the wearer must be pure of heart and soul, inside and out." she informed them.

"Yes," Ryo stated, "But Jessica is all of that, so why didn't one choose her?" he said with a puzzled look on his face.

"Possible because either she isn't pure of heart and soul, or maybe because there were two orbs there at once, or....." Mia drifted off.

"Or what?" Cye demanded. He glanced over at Kento who was still unconscious. 'C'mon, buddy, wake up......' Cye pleaded in his mind.

"Or.... nevermind. Just maybe that she didn't want the armor or the armor didn't want her." Mia sat thoughtfully down beside Kento.

Up above the group, unnoticed and hovering, was Zagoto's apprentice, Racimus. Racimus chuckeled to himself.

"Those pesky Ronin Warriors, will they never learn?" he said to himself. "I guess it's time for my grand entrance - and the grand finale when I finally succeed in finishing them off........" he said as he faded from spot above them and reappeared silently next to the group.

"Well, well, well," he said as the group noticed him standing there and turned to face him, Rowen and Ryo jumping to cover Jessica, Kayura and Mia. They crouched into their battle positions. Racimus crossed his arms and hovered before the group. "If it isn't the Ronin Warriors and their little friends, too," he directed towards Mia and Jessica.

"Mia! Jessica! Stay back......" Ryo shouted to them as he stood up in front of the group. Mia and Jessica backed up against the wall next to Kento, who was still unconscious.

'They don't stand a chance.........' Jessica thought as she watched the battle scene unfold before her.

"What do you want?" Ryo demanded.

"Nothing really. Just your lives....... that's it. That's not too much to ask, now is it?" he chuckeled, throwing back the hood of his cloak and revealing his bright red hair accentuated by his startling deep blue eyes.

"We will NEVER give in to you..... or your master!!" Cye shouted.

"Give in to him now, boy, and save yourselves a lot of pain and trouble........" he said as he drew out his hands and throwing off his cloak. "Now, feel what its like to DIE!!!!!!!!!!" he said as he charged towards Ryo and Sage.

Sage tried to fight him off with his sword as the others jumped into action. But it was useless as they were all too weak from the previous battles.

Despite their efforts, they were being thrown around like a bunch of worn out rag dolls. Ryo jumped towards Racimus, but only to meet his fist as Racimus swung around and hit him, throwing Ryo hard against the wall. Ryo desperately tried to stand back up, but he was too weak and stayed down on the ground, unable to get back up.

"Ryo!! Noooo!!" Jessica screamed.

Racimus laughed. "What's wrong, Wildfire? Have you no energy left in which to fight back? Come on, Wildfire. Show me your true power........" Racimus said as he floated over to Ryo and picked him up by his helmet. Ryo's face was scrawled with pain, wincing as Racimus picked him up.

"N-never......" Ryo gasped as Racimus grew disgusted with him and threw him back down hard. He then turned back to the rest of the group.

"Who is next in line??" he snarled evily.

"Ryo!! Oh, Ryo wake up!! You've got to get back up!!" Jessica cried to him.

Racimus turned to Jessica. "Your friend here is in no shape to fight me. He was just too weak and pathetic...... he learned his lesson. First I'll kill all of your friends, one by one..... I'll start with Wildfire here. And, lucky you, you get to have the honors of watching them all die, slowly and painfully......." he said, moving towards where Ryo sat on the ground once again. Racimus drew his sword and placed it on his shoulder next to his head. As he was about to strike him, Sage jumped forward and shoved his sword into his shoulder. Racimus turned towards Sage with hatred in his eyes.

"This WAS a private engagement, but since you HAD to interfere....... Sage of the Halo. Will you never learn?" he cried as he jumped towards Sage, his sword drawn up above his head. He brought the sword down upon Sage, but Sage blocked it with his own sword. Sage ground his teeth as he pushed Racimus's sword away then rolled out from under his grasp then jumped to his feet to face him.

"Why - why are you here?" Sage panted.

"I am sent here by my master to destroy the likes of you........ it seems as though you are....... interfering........ with his plans......." he sneered.

"You can try all you want," Rowen shouted to him, "but you can tell your master that he will never win! Not as long as we're around!!" he said as he armed his bow with an arrow. "Arrow Shock Wave!!" he cried as he released the arrow on a direct path to Racimus.

Racimus just grinned as he turned to face the arrow. He jerked his hand up, catching the arrow just centimeters from his face. He tossed the arrow to the ground disgustedly.

"I admire your courage and bravery, Rowen of the Strata, but it is not NEAR enough to defeat me. And if I am having an easy time defeating you, then........ then......." Racimus started to laugh hysterically, "then you are definitely NO match for my master!!"

Jessica turned to look at Kento with tears in her eyes. He was waking!! "M-Mia!" Jessica whispered to Mia standing next to her. "Kento - he's waking up!"

"Oh, I'm so glad!" she said, smiling slightly.

Kento groaned as he rolled over. "Oooohhh...... my head. My arms. My legs......... my entire body........." he said and sat up, immeaditely noticing the battle. "Wha - hey! Why didn't anyone wake me up??" he said angrily.

"Kento!" Mia scolded, "This is serious! They need your help out there!"

"Yeah, hang on, guys!! Here I come!" Kento cried as he raced out into the battle, unnoticed by Racimus. "Iron Rock Crusher!!" he cried, making a direct hit upon Racimus. Racimus fell to the ground.

Kento's attack caught Racimus by suprise. "N-nooooooo!!!!" he cried. But he quickly recovered and jumped to his feet, wiping blood from the side of his mouth. "Sly, Kento of Hardrock, real sly........."

"Yeah, well, you can tell your master for us that he hasn't won yet!! This battle is not over!!" Kento replied. "And we aren't anywhere NEAR being defeated....." Kento stopped and looked around at his friends - Ryo down on the ground, Rowen and Cye were holding their arms and wincing in obvious pain, and Sage, trying not to show any pain, had a cut directly above his left arm seeping with blood. Kento turned back to Racimus.

"Very well, Hardrock, then you shall face the same fate as each of your friends........... you shall have the honor of watching them fall one by one....." Racimus said as he jumped, sliding his sword against Sage and Cye's chests and hitting Rowen in the side of his face, causing all three to fall to the ground screaming out in pain. Racimus then jumped to Kayura and Cale and ran his sword across their guts and they fell to the floor, their faces scrunched up in pain.

Racimus turned to Kento. "Oh, darn. All of your friends are down for the count. I guess I only have you left to play with now....... So now it's your turn....." he sneered, advancing towards him. Kento just stood there facing him, ready for battle.

"You don't think that I'm going down THAT easily, do you??"

Racimus laughed. "It would not suprise me. Look at how weak and pathetic all of your friends were. You aren't much different, I can tell Hardrock. Now, you shall share the same fate as your friends....." he shouted, bringing up his sword and charging at Kento.

"Not so fast...." Kento said, holding up his naginata and blocking Racimus's sword. He pushed his sword away then jumped, landing behind him. Kento swung his naginata and and hit him on the side of his head. Racimus whipped around, his eyes flashing with red-hot anger.

"That was unnecessary....." he seethed with anger as he flung his sword towards Kento, spinning it in the air towards him.

Kento gasped and watched the sword move towards him in slow motion. The sword was headed in a direct crash-course with Kento.

"Nooo!! Kento!! Watch out!!" Mia and Jessica cried out to him.

But Kento was frozen and couldn't move. His fate was sure to be determined by the flinging blade that was hurteling towards him in the air. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, trying to fight his way. Trying to move his legs, his arms. Finally he gave up and just waited for the moment to come.

Jessica struggled to stand, tears streaming from her eyes. She slowly watched as the sword struck Kento, cutting into him and he fell silently to the ground. "Nooooo!! Oh, nooo!! Kento!" Jessica cried. Tearms streamed down her cheeks. Jessica stood up, despite the burning pain surging from her legs and consuming her whole body.

She walked up to Racimus, her daggers poised and ready to fight. After watching the fall of her friends, Racimus was going down. He would pay. Jessica wouldn't stand for it.

Racimus snickered at her and said, "So, the little tag-along wants to play, too?? Sorry, kid, but this game is for grown-ups. Besides, isn't it your nap time?? Let me put you to sleep......." he said and charged towards her with his sword in the air. He reached out and tried to hit Jessica but she jumped, dodging the attack as the sword crashed down into the ground where she had just been.

"So, you want to play no, don't you? You will soon find out that I NEVER loose......." he growled and turned to face her. She was inches from him and he swung his sword out, cutting into her arm.

"There's..... a first...... to everything........" she said as she gasped, dropping her daggers and grabbed her wrist which was becoming saturated with blood.

'N-no!!' she screamed in her head. 'Wha-what is WRONG with me....... I am just too weak...... Ryo! Rowen!! Guys, I'm sorry....... he was just too much........' she cried. Jessica tried to fight it, but the pain was just too intense. She tried to scream, but no sound came out. She felt something brush up against her upper legs and realised that they had almost just been sliced clear through to the bone. Blood seeped through her clothes as pain surged up through her body. 'I-I can't take it anymore!!' she screamed in her head as she sank down to her knees.

"No! Jessica!! You - you can't!!" she heard someone scream. Ryo? Mia? She started to close her eyes to the sweet darkness when she noticed her necklace. It has started to glow. An irridescant yellow light spilled out, washing through the room and washing over all of the fallen Warlords and Ronins, as well as herself. She looked down at her hands, which had been covered in blood, and watched as the blood disappeared from her wounds as they healed completely, leaving no trace of ever having been there. All of the Ronins and Warlords stood as the light subsided and only surrounded Jessica, as if she were glowing.

She stood up calmly and heard a voice, very familier to her. "Wh-who are you?" she called out to it.

"Th-the ancient?" Cye, Rowen, Sage, Kento, and Rowen all exclaimed at once in disbelief and amazement.

_Jessica. It has been long. A very, very long time_

Many, many years ago, when you were a small girl, your mother gave you a gift.

A light purple orb floated down slowly from the sky in the light and Jessica opened her hands. The orb rested in her palms only a few seconds before there was a flash of brilliant, white light and Jessica's clothes were replaced with...... an armor?

Everyone in the group gasped. "Th-there's a tenth armor? A tenth Ronin Warrior?" Mia said, amazed.

_Jessica, you are the wearer or the Armor of Wind. This was the gift that your mother gave to you right before she died in battle......... against Zagoto._

Use this armor wisely. If the wearer is pure of heart and soul and strong-willed, then it is unstoppable. Hariel's White Armor of Inferno need not your power, therefore you two may fight together, side by side. A truly remarkable and unstoppable team.

Jessica, you must remember that, without love and patience, you will not win this battle. Be strong and you will fight strong. Keep your head up, and you will have the courage to fight and go on. And when in doubt, think of all the others who have sacrificed their lives for you..... some...... out of love........

As he said that, Magic appeared before Jessica. "Magic? Magic!" Jessica cried.

Magic was bathed in a brilliant white light and when it cleared, Jessica saw a man standing there before her with black, uneven hair that didn't come below his chin, slightly taller than her, and sparkling, green eyes.

Jessica looked at him with tears in her eyes. She rememberd now........ remembered it all so clearly...... "M-Magic?" she gasped. The man nodded, walked towards her and took off her helmet, gazing into her eyes. He took her chin and tilted it up towards her as he leaned down and kissed her. Jessica closed her eyes.

She remembered it all now, the dynasty, and herself serving for the dynasty, her battle against Zagoto where Magic had been.........

The kiss ended and the light disappeared as Magic returned to his cat form. Jessica looked at Magic, crying. Jessica then turned, facing Racimus with a new determination in her eyes. "You.... will...... pay!" she shouted and swooped her katanas around her body, creating a whirlwind that emited a high pitched noise unbearable to evil. Racimus dropped his sword as he grabbed his head in pain.

"Windsong....... STRIKE!" she cried and pointed the tips of her katanas towards Racimus as a high stream of energy struck and surrounded him.

Racimus screamed. "Aaaaa! Nooooo!!!! Master, I'm sorry!!" He cried and was gone.

Jessica stood panting, her katanas still potined towards where Racimus had just been standing.

"J-Jessica?" Rowen said, running up next to her.

Jessica, exhausted, dropped her katanas and fell to the ground, Rowen caught her. "Jessica!"

Jessica's armor flashed, turned to her subarmor which glowed and disappeared, replaced with her clothing. Her necklace glowed for a second more before returning to normal. Jessica looked up a Rowen for a second before she closed her eyes.

Everyone recovered from the shock and ran over to where Rowen and Jessica were.

"Is she alright?" Ryo asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Rowen replied.

"Is she-she......" Mia whispered.

"No, Mia." Kayura answered. "Merely blacked out. She just had an overwhelming experience, you know."

"Y-yes. But..... a tenth armor? How can this be? I have never read anything about it anywhere!!"

"I know. That is just as much a mystery to me as it is to you........" Kayura trailed off. "What puzzles me is how she didn't know about this. I think that she has some more things up her sleeve before we defeat Zagoto."

"Maybe. I just...... I mean, how could we not have known about this?" Cale said softly. "I remember Talpa saying something once....... about a young girl that he had captured once long ago. Something about the armor........ her armor. Maybe..... Maybe that was Jessica. But I do remember Talpa saying something about Zagoto......." Cale trailed off.

"Y-yes." Kayura agreed. "Well, this place is starting to bug me. I suggest that we..... head out before Zagoto realises that we had just killed Racimus. Who was he, anyway??"

"I think.....I think that was his apprentice?" Sage said, more as a question than an answer.

"Yes. Anyhow I think that we should head out. I agree with Kayura." Ryo said.

The others nodded their heads in agreement. "I think that we must be pretty close to Zagoto. Before he finds us....... I think that it's better off if we find him first." Sage shuddered.

"Yeah. We need to go somewhere and rest for the time being. To replenish our energy for the battles ahead....." Cye said.

Kento bent to pick Jessica up as Rowen picked up Magic, whos front leg had been injured as was stained red with blood. Jessica lay limp in Kento's arms as the group headed out through the hold in the wall they created earlier, dodging the dead bodies of the warriors and their swords. As the group wandered on, they couldn't help but thinking about the mysterious Armor of Wind and how it came to be... and why hadn't the Ancient spoken about it to them in the early years when they had first battled Talpa and received their armors themselves? It was a question that would have to be answered later on down the road...

* * *

[Part VI][1]

   [1]: jes_chap6.htm



	2. Default Chapter Title

**.:Legacy of the Wind:.  
PART TWO: THE SECRET.....REVEALED?  
** By: Hoshi-chan

Jessica woke up Monday morning just as the sun began to peek in through her lace curtains. Magic began playing with the shadows as they darted across the room from the curtains blowing in the soft breeze. Jessica sat up in bed and stretched, then stood up and headed to the bathroom for her shower. She showered and got dressed, then walked downstairs and slipped a bagel in the toaster. She buttered the bagel and stuffed it into her mouth as she walked back upstairs to the bathroom where she expertly twisted her long hair into a neat bun, and let some strands cascade down her neck and upon her shoulders.

Then, hearing a knock on the door downstairs, she ran back downstairs and opened the door to the guys.

She smiled warmly. "Hi, guys! Hold on, let me grab my coat and books, oh, and feed Magic before heading out!!"

"Ai carumba. Girls have so much to do in the morning. I don't know about you," Kento said, "but all I do is get up, get dressed, eat, brush my teeth, eat something again, grab my books, brush my hair, grab a snack in case I get hungry......then I realize I AM hungry so I eat my snack, then I leave." Kento said, thoughtfully.

The guys laughed. "And I thought GIRLS had a lot to do in the morning!!" Cye laughed.

Jessica returned to the livingroom and grabbed her housekey from the table next to the door. She let them out, locked the door, then started walking to school. She turned to see Magic looking at her sadly through the window. She blew him a kiss, then turned around and started chatting with the group.

When they reached the courtyard of the school, Jessica saw some girlfriends from some of her classes and waved hi to them as she passed by. She has adapted to her new life well in the month. She can get around school expertly now, and even had her schedule memorized by the end of her first week!! She was acing every class, for she was very intellectual and smart.

"Well," Sage said, "I... guess I'll see you at lunch, then?"

Jessica smiled. "As usual. Have fun in class!!"

Sage looked back at her with a look of disgust on his face at the mention of 'have fun in class'! Rowen smacked him on his back and the two turned the corner.

Jessica then turned to Ryo, Cye, and Kento. "We're still going the same way. But...I have to stop by my locker first. You coming?" she said to the remaining three.

"Sure!" they all nodded in agreement and followed Jessica into the school building.

By the time Jessica got to her locker, the ten minute bell had already rung. She turned to Kento and Ryo. "I'll see you two later! You'd better get going before you're tardy to first hour!"

"Bye Jessica! Cye!" Kento and Ryo said as they headed off together to first hour.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's have fun in the won-derful world of science!!" Cye said jokingly.

Jessica threw back her head and laughed. "Actually, I don't find anything very funny at all about dissecting frogs.... blech!" Jessica said disgustedly, sticking out her tongue as the two headed to their first hour science class together.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Lunch that day was quite interesting as Jessica got in line with another one of her girlfriends, Chelsea, from her Math class.

"...and so I walked up to him and asked him what his problem was. And he, like, just looked at me with a blank look on his face like what I was saying didn't make any sense at all!!" Chelsea laughed, "Can you believe it??"

"That's crazy!" Jessica replied as they moved up in the lunch line. She selected some food items and had to laugh as Kento walked up to her and asked if she was going to eat the banana she picked up from the fruit section. "Yes, you big doof. If I didn't want it, then I wouldn't have taken it!! Go, shoo! I'll join you in a minute......"

"You're soo lucky to be hanging out with Sage Date!!" Chelsea said suddenly. "He's so....dreamy!"

"What?" Jessica retorted. "Oh, no! You're got it all wrong. Although Sage may seem to be a big flirt, which he IS, he's just like the other guys. He just likes hanging out and having fun...." when she caught the skeptical look that Chelsea was throwing at her "No, no!! We're just friends, and it's just staying at that!" she said. Chelsea was obviously not convinced.

"Sure....." she said teasingly, rolling her eyes. "You know, Sage has got a line of girls that would DIE to go out with him, much less be one of his good friends like you are!! You are lucky, whether you want to admit it or not. You're hanging out with the hottest bunch at the school, and you don't consider yourself lucky? Reality check!"

"Well," Jessica said as she paid for her lunch, "They may be the hottest, but when it comes to the love department," she said, "Sage could use a few pointers, not to mention pick-up lines!!"

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, or........ after school," Chelsea hinted. Jessica had to smile.

"See you later, Chelsea!" Jessica bid good-bye and headed over to the table where the war of the century was currently taking place.

"I DID NOT!!!" Kento exclaimed.

"DID TOO!!" Ryo almost shouted back.

'What is UP?' Jessica wondered as she sat down. 'Ryo almost NEVER gets mad. At least, I've never seen him mad. EVER!' "Um, is there something I should be let in on here....?" she implied.

"Actually," Rowen answered, "Kento's hunger has gotten the better of him, and, unfortunately, Ryo's slice of pepperoni pizza. And........ Ryo isn't exactly happy about it."

Rowen and Jessica glanced down to Kento and Ryo's end of the table where the two were seething mad at each other. Then they started staring at each other. Kento held his breath and his face started to grow a bright red. Ryo couldn't keep the anger on his face as he burst out laughing saying, "Guys, doesn't he look like a big, ripe tomato when he holds his breath??"

Cye looked thoughtfully at Kento a second before replying, "Actually, Ryo, you're right. He does!"

"Do not." Kento said.

"Too." Sage instigated.

"Do not..."

"Do too..."

"DO NOT!!!"

"Actually, look in the mirror and THEN try telling me that you don't." Sage added.

Jessica fished around in her purse until she found her compact which she handed to Kento. Kento repalled back. "Ugh! What would I want this girl stuff for?"

The look on Kento's face was enough to make them laugh, and when Kento looked in the mirror, so did he. "Just don't break my mirror!" Jessica giggled.

"Why, you little......" Kento yelled and jumped up towards Jessica. He picked her up and ran around the lunch room with her. Jessica pounded on his back.

"You beast!! Put me down you crazy beast!!" she laughed. Until finally Kento returned her to her chair, did she dare say that he looks cute when he gets angry. That embarrassed him so much and his face flushed red, which reminded them of the tomato joke and they all started rolling with laughter again, Kento included.

When finally the bell rang signaling the end of lunch, the group finished their jokes and Jessica met up with Chelsea again to go to the second half of Math, which was split by lunch. All the way back from lunch, though, Jessica kept getting weird vibes, and it definitely wasn't from Chelsea.

"Have you even heard a word I said, Jessica??" Chelsea asked her, a little annoyed.

"Oh, I'm sorry Chelsea. It's just that... I don't know. What were you saying...?" Jessica felt terrible that she hadn't heard a single word that her friend was saying, but she couldn't really concentrate on anything. 'What does this mean? Something is not stable. Something is terribly wrong!!' "Oh, no....." Jessica silently whispered to herself.

"What?" Chelsea asked, concerned.

"Oh, it's just that I'm not feeling well...and that I think it would be best if I headed home..... it might be contagious or something serious." Jessica said, trying her best not to sound well, which really wasn't that hard.

"Ok, do you need anything...? Are you sure that you're going to be ok by yourself?"

"Oh, I - I'll be just fine. Just, tell the teacher why I'm not there, that I suddenly became ill and that I had to go home. Try to tell the guys that, too, and not to worry; I'll be fine." She faked a smile.

"Ok...." Chelsea said, not sure whether she was serious or not. "Do you.... want me to get your homework or something?"

"Just send it home with one of the guys. I'll....see you hopefully tomorrow...." Jessica said and started down the hall, leaving Chelsea behind, more puzzled now than ever.

When Jessica reached her house, she immediately changed out of her itchy, uncomfortable school uniform and into baggy sweatpants and a t-shirt one size too big. Then she sat down at the table and lifted up a box, her name engraved into it. It had been given to her as a gift when she was very young, too young to remember exactly who had given it to her and why. She was soo lost in thought that when Magic jumped up into her lap, she nearly jumped five feet into the air. "Oh, Magic, you frightened me...." she said, burying her face in his soft, black fur. Magic purred contently then, just as soon as he jumped into her lap he jumped back down again.

"I guess I'm not the only crazy one around here," she said out loud to noone in particular, especially since there was noone to talk to. Magic returned a few minutes later with the necklace that she had worn the day she came to Japan. The silver necklace with the crystal blue jewel. 'What is it about this necklace?' she wondered. She was thinking so hard that she didn't even notice that someone was banging on her front door until Sage, Rowen and the other guys walked in.

"Hey, Jessica, what's up? Your friend, Chelsea, told us that you left early 'cause you were sick. She...sounded worried. Are you ok?" Rowen asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks for coming over. I'm just...... it's just that I was expecting my mom and that....." she broke off, a sob escaped from her throat. 'How long am I going to keep this lie going? I can't lie to them forever, and I feel so bad lying to them, my friends...' She was crying more out of shame now than anything.

"Oh, hey! Chin up! It's ok!" Cye reassured her.

She smiled a weak smile. "Hey, thanks guys. I knew you'd be able to cheer me up."

"I know!" said Ryo. "There's a carnival this weekend and since that....today is Friday....that we could go to it tonight!!"

Jessica almost immediately perked up. A carnival! "I love rollercoasters...!" she said almost excitedly.

"Well, then, it opens around seven so....we'll be here to pick you up at six thirty then?? It'll give us some time to drive around beforehand." Ryo offered.

"Alright." She smiled, then, looking at the five guys just then. "Thanks, guys."

"Why don't you call your mom in St. Louis?" Sage suggested.

"Oh, n-no, I......I just couldn't....." she stammered.

"Why? What's wrong? She doesn't want to talk to you? Or......what? Tell us!" Kento said.

"Hey, Kento. Easy, boy! Just....let's leave her alone for now and," Sage said as he turned to Jessica, "we'll see you again at six, m'lady...." he said bowing, knowing it would make her laugh for sure.

She smiled a little, her eyes brightening. "Sure thing." she said and walked them to the door. "Bye guys! And....thanks." she said, waving to them until they disappeared around the bend in her street.

'I don't know how long I can keep going on like this. Sooner or later...someone is going to find out.....my secret..........' she turned away from the door, tears brimming her eyes. "I just can't do this anymore!! Something very bad is going to happen, very soon, and there's not going to be a thing that I can do about it! And it will be all my fault.......all my fault......." she said as she sank down to the floor in tears.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The guys had just left Jessica's house and were heading towards the nearest diner; hunger had gotten the best of them all. Sage looked thoughtfully at the sky, then said, "You know, it's been too quiet for too long. I have a feeling that something evil is going to happen. It's this strange.......oh, I don't know. This strange vibe that I get from Jessica suddenly. Like she's.......something else. Not human. Or human, but something else....oh, I don't know!!" he said, throwing his hands up into the air.

"I know." Ryo said quietly from the back of the group. He looked up at the rest of the guys. "I....haven't told you, but ever since Jessica arrived I've been getting nothing but mixed signals from her. NOT in that way, mind you. This weird feeling, like what Sage was trying to explain. She's.........different from us somehow......." he said thoughtfully and looked up into the sky as if to study the clouds, his hands in his jeans pockets.

"Well, whatever it is we've got to find out soon. I've been getting this weird feeling all day, as if something is about to happen, or already has." Rowen spoke up. "It started right after lunch."

"Yeah, me too!" Cye added.

"Me three. But now that you mention lunch...I'm hungry!! Let's grab a bite to eat!" Kento said as the group headed into a deli that they were standing in front of.

"But Jessica is soo nice. She can't be evil. You know, from the dynasty. We already took care of them a long time ago." Ryo added thoughtfully.

"Yes, but we don't know for certain. We've been communicating with Kayura and the other ex-Wardlords for years now, ever since we've last defeated Talpa. And they say that all is well....unless..." Cye sat, lost in thought. "Has the thought that Lady Kayura and the ex-Warlords may be lying to us, telling us that all is well when in reality they're just building up against us until the day that they can defeat us?"

"No! Don't say that! Cye! What are you talking about?? That's crazy! They fought with us against Talpa. They aren't evil anymore. They realized that Talpa was just using them for their armor. It's sad, really. But, in my heart, I just know that they wouldn't do something like that to us. Not after all we've been through. Together." Kento had to speak his mind on the subject, too, and did accordingly.

Kento had already finished his first sandwich and was about to order a second one when a lady, who strikingly resembled Lady Kayura, walked by the deli window. "Hey...!" Kento yelled. "What do you think you're doing, stopping me from ordering a sandwich?? A growing boy has to eat you know."

Sage laughed, "At least you got the boy part right."

Ryo was the only one to see the lady walk by the window. 'But it couldn't have been her,' he thought. 'Kayura has no way of getting into the mortal world, that I know of.' Ryo smirked, 'But if she does, that's Kayura for ya. I'd better not worry about it. It probably wasn't even her. That person had regular, japanese clothing on.' Ryo turned to the others. "Are ya ready to head out?"

"Heah ou ere?" Kento said, his mouth stuffed full of food. He swallowed it down, took a gulp of his soda, then said, "Head out where?"

"Just....walk around, I guess." was Ryo's answer.

Cye tossed some money onto the counter to pay for the bill, then the five walked out into the autumn weather.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Magic looked at Jessica sitting tearfully at the kitchen table, her necklace, the only link to her past, laying limply in her hand. 'Oh, how I wish that I could help you, mistress!' Magic meowed. 'I wish I could tell you all about it and what's happened, why you're here........' Magic rubbed up against Jessica's legs. Magic noticed the time. He meowed sweetly to let Jessica know that the guys were coming for her in an hour. It worked.

"Oh, Magic, what would I do without you?" She said lovingly, petting him softly underneath his chin.

Magic was a remarkable cat, his lovely, rich black fur with two startling white front paws. He had striking green eyes that Jessica just loved to gaze into....and Magic gazed back. Magic has known Jessica forever......but she doesn't remember anything, 'Until you remember your past, my mistress, I can not help you! I am helpless! You must try hard to think! But, oh, how to activate the jewel! That's something they NEVER tell you in the books.....' All Magic had to do to help speed along the remembrance of Jessica's past was to activate the jewel, but to do so was impossible. 'The legendary Ronin Warriors.....they're the key to this whole thing. And.......if they're not found soon........this could spell trouble! For the entire world!'

Magic jumped down from his perch on the table and sat in the sunlight pouring in from the window in the livingroom. Magic was given to Jessica as a gift, while he was still a tiny kitten, oh, so long ago. But, a little kitten of many words, as he has talked to............oh, his name? Magic strained to remember. It seems as if their memories are leaving by the day! Pretty soon, there will be nothing left to remember but the two together. And the days in the future of the two, cat and girl, together.

Magic remembered his brave sacrifice oh, so many years ago to save a small and beautiful young maiden whom he was deeply in love with. But he could not remember whom his sacrifice was for, what his sacrifice was, or anything. 'It's so frustrating!' Magic thought, whipping his tail angrily around his sleek, black body. 'It's just so frustrating how we all lost our memory...' Magic licked his lips and proceeded to clean his tail when Jessica stood up from the table and dried her tears from her eyes.

"I....guess I'd better get ready to go now...." she said to Magic. Magic meowed in response as Jessica picked him up and kissed him on his forehead. "You know, Magic, you're my only true friend. I mean, I know that I have the guys....who are my really good friends and tons of girls at school but....." she looked into Magic's eyes and he purred contentedly. "You'll always be my best. You'll never abandon me... and you know what I've been through...." she set Magic back down in his patch of sunlight that was growing slightly smaller with the setting sun.

She walked upstairs and changed from her sweats to a pair of attractive jeans and a body-hugging sky blue shirt. She then proceeded to the bathroom where she took down her hair and washed it, then pulled it up into a ponytail that curled up at the end.

She walked downstairs to grab her purse when there was a knock on the door. "It's 6:30 already?" she said in amazement to Magic as she walked over to open the door. Magic just looked at her with his wondering green eyes.

As she opened the door, she saw Kento and Sage leaning against either side of the door frame and Ryo, Cye, and Rowen in the middle all wearing their school jackets and jeans. She smiled happily and warmly, as Magic sadly looked on. Magic felt as if her were losing her to these five..... these..... strangers whom she hardly knew. She was almost spending all of her time with them now. And Magic didn't exactly approve, but if it made his mistress happy, it was ok with him.

"Hi, guys!" she said, pulling on her warm white jacket and stepped out into the doorstep, playfully pushing Kento and Sage away on either side of her.

"Whoa.........!" Kento cried as he crashed into Cye. He was accentuating the push a little too much as he fell flat on his butt in her front yard. The whole group cracked up, even Kento. "Well........" he said, putting his hands up on the back of his head.

"Let's go guys! What are we waiting for? I wanna ride some roller coasters!" Jessica said excitedly, her eyes beginning to sparkle. She'd loved roller coasters ever since she was a small child......

The six climbed into the car and drove to the Carnival, which was near the center of town. They talked excitedly the whole way there..... mostly about Kento and his eating habits, and Sage and his obsession with flirting with anything every chance he got.

"Well...." Jessica said smoothly, "Why is it that every time I see you in the hallway, or trying to walk to lunch, you're always surrounded with swarming girls?"

"Heh, well, that's just because of my startling good looks and great personality." he said rather self-assured.

"And Kento....?" Jessica said sweetly and slyly.

Kento turned to Jessica. "Yesss?"

"Next time that we get to a café....."

"Yeeeesss?"

"PLEASE LEAVE MY CHICKEN ALONE!!!" she almost shouted, jokingly.

Kento fell back astonished. "Wha....?"

The van bursted up laughing. "Ya, Kento, mine too!!" Cye added.

Kento balled his hand up into a fist and shook it warningly. "Why, I oughta........"

Sage, Rowen, and Cye did the same, "Why, we oughta......"

That just made them burst up laughing even more. Ryo did, although he was trying to concentrate on the road. But it wasn't easy with Kento bumping into the back of his seat. "You guys.......!" Ryo said laughingly. "Settle down!" Then, when Kento elbowed his seat once more on accident, Ryo said, "SETTLE DOWN, YOU OVERGROWN APE!!"

Rowen, Cye, and Sage were relieved when they finally reached the carnival. The grounds were bustling with activity when they arrived, and it was only a little before seven!!

They walked into the park, when a man selling cotton candy walked by. Kento looked at the man hungrily, and basically stalked him around the entire park, the rest of the group left him and finally rejoined with when Kento triumphantly came back with pink and blue cotton candy. "Heh, with my smooth talking, I can weasel anything out of anybody!!" Kento said.

"Huh?" Cye and Ryo said to Kento.

"Well, I followed the man around the park when these girls walked up to him. So I figured that I'd strike up a conversation with them, and I did. Then, finally, they bought me some cotton candy and walked away....." he said.

"Yeah, they probably only bought you the cotton candy to get rid of you," Cye said, knowing that it would aggravate him.

"Hey....!" Jessica said, tugging on Rowen's jacket sleeve. "There's a roller coaster!! Someone come ride it with me! Please?"

"I will!" all five said.

"Well, only one can sit with me, though," she said. "And you've got to get me to sit next to me!" she yelled behind her shoulder as she took off to the end of the line. The group took off after her.

"Hey......! Wait up!!" Kento yelled, lagging behind the group, cotton candy in one hand.

Rowen tagged her shoulder first, and right behind him, right on his tail was Ryo, then Cye, then Sage, and Kento, who was far behind.

Jessica laughed while saying, "Well, it looks as if Rowen is the one who'll be riding with me!"

"Aww, man!" the others cried. Rowen just laughed.

After the roller coaster, the group moved on to play some games, where Ryo won a huge stuffed teddy-bear and gave it to Jessica, and Sage and Kento both won goldfish and tried to give those to her, but she just said, "No, why don't you keep them at your houses. Magic might eat them!!"

"I'll name mine Jessica, after you......" Kento said.

"No, MINE's name is Jessica!!" Sage said heatedly.

"MINE MINE MINE!!" Kento said, swinging his arms around and shaking the poor fish in the bag.

"NO YOU OAF! MINE MINE MINE!!"

Ryo, Rowen, Cye, and Jessica walked away; leaving the two arguing behind them until they realized that the rest had left them, and they hurriedly ran to join up when Ryo glanced down at his pager which had begun to vibrate.

"Huh?" Ryo said, checking the number of who had paged him. He turned to Rowen and then said, "Rowen and I have a call to make. You can........ meet us in the back of the carnival in about fifteen minutes? Ok?" Ryo said as the two started towards the payphones.

"Ok..... what's up with that??" Kento said. Cye gave Kento a look, unseen by Jessica, and Kento said, "Ooooh........ yeah.... I forgot!!"

"You sure don't remember much when we're talking over food, huh Kento??" Cye said, grinning at Kento.

"Wha - hey! There's a funhouse!!" Kento exclaimed, totally forgetting what he was about to say to Cye. Kento grabbed Jessica's wrist saying, "C'mon guys!! You're coming with me, Jessica!"

"Ah! No!" she shrieked, laughing.

The other two caught up with Kento and Jessica in the funhouse in time to hear Kento exclaim, "Whoa! I slimmed down a bit!!"

"No, silly! That's just a curved mirror to alter your appearance!" Jessica said, playfully pinching his stomach.

"Really, Kento. After what you've eaten tonight....." Sage said, leaning against one of the mirrors next to Jessica and Kento.

"Hey, look! There's the moving floor up ahead!" Cye pointed out and they ran ahead, trying not to lose their balance and topple over onto one another. The very end of the funhouse there was a room where it looked as if you were inside a turning barrel. You were supposed to look straight ahead at the doorway, and if you're doing it right, the doorway seemed to tilt and you lose your balance. Kento and Sage did, and fell ontop of each other, knocking Jessica into Cye, who caught her.

"We're out acting like we're a bunch of drunks!" Sage said, laughing from on the floor. "Now, do you mind getting off from ontop of my legs? They're starting to loose circulation...."

"Huh? Oh, yeah...." Kento said and stood up. "Hey, aren't we supposed to meet Ryo and Rowen about now? Or soon?"

"Oh, that's right!" Jessica said, helping Sage up from the floor and the four, thankfully, walked out of the funhouse and proceeded towards the back of the carnival, where crowds were beginning to subside and thin out.

Kento was carrying Jessica's stuffed bear that Ryo won her on his shoulders and was pretending to strike up a conversation with it when Jessica thought 'There it is! That feeling again.....!' she screamed in her head. 'Except..... except his time it's different.' Her eyes darted around suspiciously from person to person. 'Someone is.... nearby?' When at last her gaze fell upon a figure hiding in the darkness. 'N-no! It CAN'T be! He - he's dead! He's been dead for 150 years........!' Jessica screamed in her head. "Oh, no! No!"

'What....... who is that?' she said, straining to see. As they got closer, however, she gasped as she suddenly realized who the figure was.

The other stopped joking around and turned to Jessica. "What is it? What's wrong?" Cye asked.

The figure darted farther into the darkness as Jessica's hand flew up to her mouth, then fainted, crumpling to the ground.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Ryo! Rowen! Hurry!" Kento said, running to the two who were walking back from the phone booths, talking to each other. They both looked up as they heard Kento's frightened and concerned voice.

"What's up?" Ryo asked.

"It - it's Jessica! She.... fainted while we were walking to meet you two!"

"Oh, no!" Rowen said as the three ran back to where Sage and Cye were watching Jessica.

"What happened?" Rowen demanded as they reached them.

"I - I don't know...." Kento wailed. "She was fine one minute and....... then she just fell down and blacked out!!"

"Well, she probably fainted from the fact that you WERE talking to a stuffed animal......" Cye said matter-of-factly.

"You two knock it off. We've got to get her back to Mia's..... That WAS Mia on the phone by the way..." Rowen announced as he bent to pick Jessica up.

"Oh, no! What's up? Is it the dynasty?" Sage said seriously.

"I - we don't know just yet..." Ryo admitted. "But Mia told us to come over to her house as soon as we could because she wanted to talk to us and... Kayura is supposed to arrive to give us further information on the situation tomorrow. And... since this happened we can't just leave her at house by herself... we don't know if she's ok or not yet. We have no choice but to bring her to Mia's with us..." Ryo said.

"Ya." the others nodded.

"She isn't exactly light, you know...." Rowen grunted. "I think that we'd better head to the van right about now..."

They arrived at the van and Rowen laid Jessica across the front seat in the van, Ryo and Sage sat in front, Cye and Kento sat in back, and Rowen sat on the floor between the middle seat and the front seats.

"Well, I thought we took care of the dynasty, what? four years ago? Or was it three?" Sage said grumpily.

"Uh, I think it was three...." Ryo responded.

"So what could be causing disturbances in the netherworld to make Kayura come into the mortal and talk to us? I thought they had it pretty much under control." Cye said.

"Yeah, I thought they were looking out for the place and fixing it up from after we defeated Talpa."

"I..... don't think that it's Talpa, you guys." Ryo said.

"What is UP with Talpa, anyway? First he's alive, then we kill him, then he comes back to life so we kill him again...... so.... is he alive or dead or....or what?" Kento said angrily from the back seat.

"I think we've finished him off for good this time. Hopefully......... Kayura will know a little of what's going on...... I really hope it's not much of anything. You know that we've had situations like this before, right after we defeated Talpa - the second time - where every little disturbance was thought of as a threat by Kayura and the Warlords? They contacted us every time but it always turned out to be nothing." Rowen stated from his place on the floor.

"No, guys, this time I think that it's serious....... that this threat IS real..... it's those feelings that we've been getting lately." Ryo said, turning down Mia's road then info her driveway finally.

Rowen, once again, picked up Jessica from her place on the seat and carried her to the front door where Mia gave them a skeptical look. "What happened to her?" she said, glancing sideways at Jessica laying limp in Rowen's arms.

"Do you.... have an extra bed?" Ryo asked. "She sort of....... fainted...... at the carnival. Right after we hung up with you."

"Oh! the poor thing! Here, go ahead and give her this room down here," Mia said, opening a door, "so that Rowen won't break his legs by trying to carry her any farther."

"Phew!" Rowen said as he laid Jessica down in the bed and covered her up. "That's a relief. I hope she wakes up by tomorrow!"

"Yes, me too." Cye said.

"Anyways, you guys, let's get down to business." Mia said as the six sat at the kitchen table and started talking into the hours of morning.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Jessica awoke in a strange bed doused in sweat. 'Where am I?' she thought as she sat up. She had a terrible headache. 'What happened? What am I doing here?'

That's when she noticed Ryo sleeping in a chair next to her bed and Sage sleeping in another chair opposite to the room. She looked at the clock next to her bedside. It read 2:45 a.m. 'Whoa...' she thought.

She sat up on the edge of the bed and tried to stand up. But dizziness overcame her and she fell back onto the bed, waking Ryo up.

"Hey." he said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "What happened last night? Are you ok?"

"Yeah.... I'm fine. It's just this.... headache I have." She laid back down onto the bed, rolled over to face Ryo, and asked, "So... where am I, anyway?"

"Hmm? Oh! We're at Mia's. That's who we were on the phone with when Rowen and I went to make a phone call. We... didn't want to leave you alone at your house..... and, well, not knowing if you were ok we brought you here."

Jessica smiled in the darkness. "That's ok, thanks, I appreciate that."

Ryo stood up. "Well, I guess Sage and I should leave you to get some rest..." He walked over to Sage and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, Sage. C'mon buddy, let's go."

"Hmm? W-what?" Sage said, startled by the awakening. "Oh, Jessica! You're alright?"

"Yes, thanks." Jessica smiled over at him from the bed. 'He looks cute with the moonlight shining on him... on BOTH of them... Maybe...'

"I guess we'll leave now. We'll see ya tomorrow at breakfast, then?" Sage said, heading towards the door.

Jessica almost laughed. "Sure. Where else would I be?"

"G'nite...... Jessica." Sage said as he and Ryo shut the door behind them.

Jessica laid back down in her bed, gazing out the window at the moonlight. What is Whitney doing back here? That only meant one thing - trouble. Although Whitney was on their side, he only comes to Earth whenever there's trouble...... when the two world's were dangerously unstable. 'But - there still can't be too much going on. I would have sensed it when I first arrived here....' She sat up. Then a look of dread washed over her face. 'Unless..... these five guys. I've..... been getting weird vibes from them ever since I met them at the airport that day..... one month ago.....' Jessica started to cry. 'I just.... don't know! I don't know!' she said softly into her hands and cried herself to sleep.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Jessica awoke the next morning to Sage and Kento quietly tip-toeing into her room. She smiled into her pillow. The two crept up to the side of her bed and were about to tickle her when she rolled over and playfully whacked Sage with her pillow and lightly kicked Kento in his stomach.

"Oomph!" Kento exclaimed.

"Hey...what was that for??" Sage said, rubbing his head.

"Oh, you two....." she giggled and sat up. "What's for breakfast??"

"Oh! Cye's in there cooking up a feast. Bacon, eggs, sausage, muffins, toast.... and pancakes!!"

"Really, oh, my faves!!" Jessica cried.

"What a coincidence!! That's MY fave, too!!" Kento said.

Sage just rolled his eyes and said, "Kento, EVERYTHING is your favorite to you... "

Kento looked thoughtful for a moment before replying, "Yeah......... you do have a point. I guess you're right!!"

"Ok, then," Jessica said, standing up. "Let's eat!! I'm starved."

"I won't object to that! You.... have me convinced!! Let's go!" said Kento happily as he bounded into the kitchen.

"Mmmmm.......... it smells so good!!" Jessica exclaimed.

"That's because you have a very excellent chef, if I do say so myself." Cye said, turning from the oven, a spatula in one hand and a frying pan in the other, wearing a light-blue checkered apron.

The others were seated at the table. "Hey, Jessica!! How are you feeling??" Rowen asked.

"Oh, much better!! Thanks for letting me stay here, Mia!!"

"Oh, it's really no problem at all. The guys hang out here all the time, and I've got MORE than enough room!!"

The seven were in the middle of eating breakfast when there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it," Mia said, standing up. She answered the door, then called to Ryo who stood up and walked to the door. The others, all except for Jessica, because she didn't want to be rude and Kento, who was too busy eating to notice that someone had knocked on the door, stood up, straining to see who was at the door.

At the door, Mia whispered to Ryo, "It's Lady Kayura!! What are we going to do about Jessica?"

"Oh! I - I don't know. How could Jessica possibly know Kayura, though? Invite her in but whisper for her to keep quiet about the warrior business until Jessica leaves."

"Alright." Mia said and talked to Kayura who then walked in through the door.

Back at the table, the guys were sitting back down. Jessica had finished eating and rose to carry her dishes to the sink; her back to the kitchen doorway as Mia, Ryo, and Kayura joined the others Kento, Cye, and Rowen all said "Hi!".

Jessica finished washing her dishes and was drying off her hands when she looked up and saw Kayura standing in the kitchen. Jessica gasped and stopped in the middle of drying her hands. 'W-what is SHE doing here??' she thought. 'Oh, no!! This MUST mean trouble if SHE'S here!!'

Her gasp quieted the group and they all turned to face her. "K-Kayura!!" she gasped again.

Everyone turned to look at Jessica. "H-how do you know Kayura?" Cye demanded.

"Hello, Jessica." Kayura said calmly.

Then the truth hit Jessica like a diesel truck out of control as she sank into a chair. "I-if you're here... then... y-you're the... R-Ronin..." she stuttered.

"Yes, Jessica. They're the Ronin Warriors." Kayura explained.

'Oh, no...' Jessica thought as she covered her face with her hands and sank even farther into the chair.

* * *

[Part III][1]

   [1]: jes_chap3.htm



	3. Default Chapter Title

**.:Legacy of the Wind:.  
PART ONE: A NEW BEGINNING  
** By: Hoshi-chan

Jessica looked down at the photo that she held in her hand and then looked up at the bustling airport. She stood on her tip-toes, straining to see the faces on the photo that was sent to her a week earlier to her home in St. Louis. She saw a boy that looked familiar from the photo, but he was surrounded by a huge group of girls and she thought, 'That couldn't be him. I was told that there would be a group of people here to pick me up...' That's when she noticed more people from the photo scanning the crowd, also. She walked over towards them, flipping her long brown hair over her shoulder.

Jessica was tall and almost skinny. The pretty, 16-year-old had long, flowing brown hair and beautiful blue eyes, so light they almost seemed to be a crystal blue. She had a sharp, beige face and built like a model, although she ate what she wanted and really doesn't try to be thin. She was wearing long flare jeans that neatly fanned out around her brown boots that she wore on her feet, and a white T-shirt that was tucked into her jeans. She wore a light, silver necklace around her neck with a crystal-blue jewel suspended from it and an almost matching ring on her right hand. She glanced at the ring just now, oh, how it brought back memories...

She turned to the first guy in the group. He looked nice, he had dark brown hair and a round face. "Um, excuse me, but are you the welcoming group for Jessica?" she asked timidly.

"Oh! Hey! YOU'RE Jessica! Sage has had shrouds of girls all over him claiming to be Jessica...." he said, motioning his elbow in the direction of the blonde-haired boy Jessica had seen earlier in the middle of a suffocating crowd of girls.

"Uh, yeah, I noticed. So, what's your name?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm Kento. And, hey!! Ryo, Cye!! Jessica's here! Those girls aren't her at all." Kento called to Ryo and Cye. They turned around and walked towards her.

"Hey!" the guy with long black hair said to her. "I'm Ryo. Just doing my job - Welcome to Japan!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, welcome to our little corner of the world. Although many, many people here have already discovered it...so it's not so little! How are you? I'm Cye." Cye had nice light-brown hair that reminded her a little of the Beetles. Jessica giggled a little in spite of her self.

Jessica shifted her weight to her other leg and picked up her flight bag that she had set on the floor upon finding her new friends. "Hi!" she said cheerfully. "It's nice to meet you all, and I really appreciate you coming to meet me here!"

"Oh, this isn't all of us..." Cye told her, turning around. He tugged on the sleeve of the blonde haired boy who turned around. "Sage!! THIS is Jessica." Cye then turned to the crowd of girls and announced, "Sage has to go now. Go on your little merry ways..." The group sighed disappointingly and walked away.

Sage turned to Jessica. "Well, hello there beautiful!! Has anyone ever told you that your eyes are the prettiest blue..." He said, leaning against the wall. "I'm Sage. And..."

"I'm Rowen. Nice to meet you!" A young boy with bluish-greenish hair said to her. "Here, let me take your bag..." Rowen said, instincingly reaching for her flight night bag.

Jessica was flattered. "Thanks..." she said. Two girls walked up to the group with sodas and hot dogs.

"Kento, Cye, we're back with the food." A girl with startling pretty green eyes and long, shiny blonde hair said. The girls no sooner handed them their food when Kento was already on his second hot dog.

A girl with glasses and short black hair noticed Jessica standing there awkwardly. "Hi! Are you the new transfer student from America??" she exclaimed.

Jessica blushed. "Uh, yeah. I'm Jessica. And you are...?" Jessica said, extending her hand.

"I'm Mary. And the other girl is Alexis." Mary said, taking her hand and motioning to the girl with long blonde hair.

"It's nice to meet you all...oh, I almost forgot about Magic!!" Jessica suddenly exclaimed and ran over to the luggage pickup belt. The group arrived there and heard a soft mewing coming from one of the carriers that Jessica picked up. She stuck her finger through a hold in the cage and said, "This is my kitten, Magic. He goes everywhere with me, and if I don't bring him somewhere, he'll let me know that he doesn't approve when I get back." she laughed.

"Awwww how cute!!" the two girls exclaimed and were cooing and aahing over the tiny creature in the cage. Magic affectionately stuck one of his startling white paws through the hole in the cage as if to say hello.

"Is...this all your luggage, Jessica?" Ryo said to her. "I'd be more than happy to..."

"Carry it for you!!" Sage and Kento exclaimed at the same time. They turned and glared at each other.

Jessica thought, 'These guys seem so familiar. As if I've known them before. But it's impossible...because...it's just this strange vibe that I get from those five...' she wondered.

"Uh, Jessica?" Rowen interrupted.

"Hmm?" Jessica said and snapped her head up to face Rowen. "Oh, sorry..." she replied almost shyly. 'Weird....' she thought.

"Well, we've got all your luggage and we're ready to go..." Kento and Sage grunted as they strained with all of Jessica's luggage. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at the two. 'Honestly,' she thought. 'Those two...'

When they reached the parking lot, the girls departed from them, saying their good-byes and 'we'll see you in school on Monday' and the six waited at the curb. A van pulled up and Ryo opened the back door and Sage and Kento thankfully set her luggage in the back, then plopped down on the seats in the van. Jessica stepped into the van and sat between Rowen and Sage, Ryo was in the front along with another girl and Kento and Cye were in the back with Magic on their laps.

Ryo turned to Jessica. "Jessica, I don't believe that you've met Mia." He laughed. "Well, then, how could you have met her already if you just got here? Well, Mia, this is Jessica and Jessica, this is Mia."

Mia turned around. "It's nice to meet you! Now, do you know where you're living at? The address to your house?" Jessica handed a slip of paper from her flight bag to Mia. Mia studied it then said, "Oh! This isn't too far from these guys' houses. In fact, you're right in the middle of them!"

'Great,' Jessica thought. 'Round-the-clock flirting and 24 hour buffet, all you can take.' "That's nice. See, my mom is supposed to be getting a transfer here from St. Louis and I came here earlier than her so that I could start the school in the beginning of the semester instead of coming in during the middle of it...it's just easier for me, that's all. I'll be alone for a month or two until my mom arrives with the rest of our furniture and stuff."

"That's cool! What kind of job does your mom have?" Rowen asked, interested.

"Oh, she studies ancient stuff. You know, like the Mayans and stuff. But, of course that wasn't here. Actually, I don't know what she'll be studying here..." she trailed off. 'But I do know what I'll be studying,' she thought.

The van drove along through roads; Jessica tried to memorize the names and which turns Mia took, but it all became too confusing so she eventually gave up. About twenty minutes after they had left the airport, Mia pulled into the driveway of a nice, two-story house. Mia double-checked the address on the slip of paper that Jessica had handed to her. "Yes, this is it. Do you need help unloading?" Mia asked nicely.

"That would be nice, thank you." Jessica followed Sage out of the van and walked up to the front door. She fished in her pocket for the key to the house, stuck it in the key hole, opened the door and stepped inside. She turned around and noticed Sage directly behind her leaning on the doorframe.

"You're going to be here, all alone by yourself, for a month? Hmm a girl would need some protection..." He was about to say something else when Kento bumped into him from behind. "Hey..." he growled at Kento.

"Oops, sorry buddy." Kento walked over, a little too close, to where Jessica was standing. "So...where do you want us to set your stuff at?"

"Oh, just...anywhere." Jessica sat down on the couch that was shipped here about a week ago. Many of her furniture and items have already arrived here.

When the last of the luggage was brought in, the guys stood by the door and said their good-byes.

"Hey, we'll see you at school Monday. Maybe we can...swing by and pick you up?" Kento offered nicely.

"Oh, well, I...sure, I guess so." she said uncertainly. 'It's that feeling!' she thought. 'That feeling that I get whenever I'm around only them!!'

She bid them good-bye and closed the door behind them. She turned to Magic and picked him up. "Oh, Magic. What am I to do?" she said, lovingly stroking his head. She set him down and picked up the phone book that was setting on the kitchen table. "Well, first things first." she sighed as she flipped through the thick book and picked up the phone. "Monday is only two days away, and I've got to find something to wear to this school, what is it? Han'a High?" she sighed. And if Monday was anything like today, she didn't know what she'd do!!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

As the guys drove home, Ryo sat thoughtfully in the front seat while the four others joked around in the back. Mia looked sideways at Ryo and asked, "What's up? You're being too quiet. Even for you!"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing, Mia. It's just that...that girl. Jessica. It's as if she's afraid of us. I mean, Kento and Sage may be contributing to that a little..." he said, turning to Sage and Kento.

"Who, me?" Kento said innocently.

Sage just rolled his eyes. "Well, you might as well drop out of the running, pal. We all know she's as good as mine!!" he said, matter-of-factly.

"Oh, yeah?" Kento said angrily.

"Yeah." Sage retorted.

"Well, well, Mr. Macho. Aren't we so sure about that?? And WHO is the one who hasn't gone out on a date in over a year?? Huh?"

Sage turned a shade of red. "W-well..." he stammered. Then he regained his posture and said, "I could have any girl that I want in a snap of my fingers," he said, snapping his fingers to accentuate the line. "Just like that."

Rowen turned to the two. "Aw, come on guys. Knock it off. If she wanted one of you, she would have responded to one of your ridiculous flirting. Maybe she's just... not interested."

"Not interested? NOT INTERESTED? In me? Ha! Who could resist me?" Sage said.

The other five in the car leaned away as Sage opened his eyes and looked around. "O-kaay maybe YOU can but still..."

Kento shot back. "Just because you have girls swarming all over you like a mass of bees around honey DOESN'T mean that you can have any girl that you lay your eyes on."

"Guys guys!! Stop it! Knock it off!!" Ryo said as the two started shaking their fists at each other. Thankfully, Mia just turned into Kento's driveway to drop him off.

Kento hopped out of the van and kept shooting looks at Sage to kill. "Man, those two are as bad as... I don't know but when I find out what they're as bad as, I'll let you know." Cye said from the back of the van.

"Mind you, I AM still here..." Sage said warningly, turning around to look at Cye.

Rowen looked up from the book he was reading. "If you were listening to a WORD Ryo said earlier, just give her some space. I mean, she just got here about an hour ago and you two are already making passes at her! Give the girl some time to adjust."

"Yeah..." Ryo agreed. "But, there's still something about her... I don't know. Maybe it's just me. I haven't exactly been myself lately. But it seems as if she's afraid of us."

Sage smirked. "Well, just let the doctor take care of that!"

"I'll be glad to," Cye said. "I'll talk to her Monday, BEFORE any of you do. I'll find out what's bugging her. So...try to stay away Sage. Until I find out what's up, ok?"

Sage slumped down into his seat. "Hmph! Why do you get to have all the fun?"

Mia then turned into Cye's driveway. "Bye guys. See ya tonight at the theatre, right?" he checked with the three other guys.

"Sure. Bye Cye." The others said and pulled away.

As they drove to Sage's house, Ryo still wondered over what was REALLY up with Jessica. But, then again, he'd been getting strange vibes from EVERYONE lately. Even the guys and Mia! 'It's as if...something's going on inside of me that I don't even know about,' he thought. 'But what's really up? Or...is it just me?'

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Jessica walked down the sidewalk glancing ever so often at the directions that she had written on a slip of paper in her hand. She was looking for the store of whom she called earlier. She glanced at her watch. It was only 5:30 still, and she hadn't eaten anything since on the flight here. Spotting a sign on a nearby restaurant, she stepped inside and ordered some food.

As she was carrying the food over to a table in the corner, she heard some voices from the back of the room. She turned around in her booth and saw the guys from earlier playing football with a folded up napkin.

"He shoots... he scores!!" she heard Kento shout. The group started to laugh.

'Maybe if I just sit here and eat my food quietly, they won't notice me...' she said and slumped down a little farther into her seat and began eating some of her meal. She kept glancing over at the group. The girl from earlier wasn't there with them. 'Well, at least SHE seemed nice,' Jessica thought thoughtfully, chewing on a piece of teriyaki chicken. She was lost in thought when she noticed someone standing beside her.

"Are you... going to eat all that?" Kento politely asked.

Jessica stared at her half-eaten meal. She wasn't even hungry anymore. "Uh, no..." she said, pushing her plate towards Kento who had already seated himself across from her at the booth. Ryo, Cye, Rowen, and Sage weren't too far behind Kento as she noticed the three approaching. Rowen sat down in the booth next to Kento, who had already finished her plate and bellowed for more. "Awwwwww man, and I'm still WAY hungry!" Sage slid into the seat next to Jessica, and closed it up with Cye who politely sat down on the edge next to Sage. Ryo just stood, shooting looks at the guys.

"Ahem..." Ryo said, narrowing his eyes. 'He looks cute when he's mad!' Jessica thought to herself. She almost immediately felt guilty for what she just said and darted her eyes away.

"Oh, yeah..." Kento said, pushing Rowen out of the seat next to him and stood up.

"Hey...!" Rowen laughed. "Are ya that much in a hurry to see the movie? We've still got an hour and a half!"

Sage turned to Jessica. "Ya, we're going to see a movie at the theatre in a bit, wanna join us?"

Jessica looked down at her hands and played with the fork. "Oh, well... I was just about to go shopping for clothes, uniforms for school Monday."

"Oh, well..." Sage glanced up at Ryo. If looks could kill...

Cye butted in. "Well, that's ok. We could show ya around the mall a bit before the movie."

Ryo just rolled his eyes. "Gu-uys. Remember??" he said through his teeth.

Jessica turned to Ryo. "Is there something wrong? I mean, don't you WANT me to come? It's ok. I really don't..."

"No!" Sage interrupted. "He's just anxious to be getting to the movie, as we all are." Sage shot Ryo a look.

'There it is! That feeling again!' Jessica thought to herself. 'Well, if they were... if they are from... maybe I should just drop it. It's impossible. He's been dead for over 150 years... Maybe I should try to get to know them. They seem nice enough...' Jessica smiled at Ryo. "No, really, it's ok. Actually, I'd love it if you would show me around and help me with the uniforms and stuff!" 'What am I Doing?!?' she thought.

Ryo's eyes grew large. "Really? Ok then..."

The group stood up, Kento and Sage walked on either side of her, giving each other menacing looks. Jessica laughed. "What's UP with you two??"

The two stopped and stuttered. "We...Well, you see, oh, nothing..." they said looking at the ground. 'All over me and won't even admit it!' Jessica gaily thought. 'These guys aren't so bad after all! They're actually... nice!' Then her memories flooded her memory again and she thought, 'No! How can I DO this? After all of what happened, why I'm here...' blurred images filled her mind, half pictures of what were soon to be very clear.

They reached the mall and Rowen turned and started walking backwards, looking at the group. "So, anyone up for... Casablanca??"

The group burst out laughing. Even Jessica couldn't help herself as she started giggling.

"Wait!" Cye yelled as he stared at Jessica, who was still giggling, as so was the rest of the group. "Is that Jessica..." She stopped laughing and looked about startingly. 'Oh, no! Has he found out who I am?' Cye continued, "...laughing?" Jessica sighed a breath of relief and smiled at Cye.

"Yes, you dummy. Have you never seen someone laugh before?" She glanced sideways and smiled at him again.

"Hey," Ryo broke up their laugh session. "Here's the place where we buy our uniforms. I've... seen some girls from school shopping here before, too."

Kento ran up to the first rack and picked up a skirt that was clearly much to large for Jessica's slender waist. "I don't know HOW girls do it...." he said astonishingly, looking through the skirt at the group.

"Is he always this crazy?" Jessica said to Rowen, who nodded.

"And if he isn't, then somethin's up!" Cye added.

They left the store with about 45 minutes to spare until the start of the movie. "What movie are we seeing, by the way?" Jessica politely inquired. She ran her fingers through her hair, which had become slightly tangled from the afternoon's activities.

"Ya know.." Ryo said, scratching his head, "That's something we haven't been able to figure out yet!" He laughed.

"Well, there's a new sci-fi flick that's coming out. Who's up for that?" Rowen suggested. The other's just looked at him with the same bleak expression. "Ok... NOT such a good idea..."

The others just smiled and shook their heads. "Well, I hope something good is showing!" Sage commented. "Although, something good IS showing, right now!!" he said as he glanced sideways at Jessica, who felt the color rush into her cheeks and she looked down.

Rowen noticed and tried to turn the attention away from her. "Ooh look! _Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus_ is showing!!"

The group laughed.

Jessica said, between fits of giggles, "Ooh, let's... let's see that!!" she said cheerfully. Then she turned to Sage and said, "and I'm almost POSITIVE that you're the star!"

Sage looked taken aback.

"Oooh dissed by a gir-rl!!" Kento teased. Sage's face grew red and he glared at Kento.

"AND I BET THAT YOU'RE THE OTHER STAR, HUH KENTO??" he said between his teeth, glaring at Kento.

Kento got an amusing look on his face as he said, "Actually, no, I'm not. But... Jessica here is!!"

Jessica blushed and smiled. "Yeah, one of the women from Venus!!"

"Venus... the goddess of love and beauty, behold!!" he said, taking Jessica's hand. "And this is supposed to be a love story...? I think I could adjust to this...!" he said, grinning his boyish grin that girls would die for. But not Jessica. She just conked him on his head, withdrew her hand, and rolled her eyes as the group began to laugh hysterically.

"We'd better get our refreshments and tickets and stuff!!" Rowen stated, as the movie started in a half-hour.

"Yes, I can't WAIT to see it..." Kento said, still teasing Sage.

"Oh, you two, grow up!! As you can clearly tell," she said, a sweet, innocent smile on her face, "I'm NOT interested in a relationship now, sorry to burst your bubble, Sage... and you too, Kento."

Sage and Kento both looked up at Jessica, astonished. Then their looks changed to innocence. "Who, me?" they said together.

"Oh, please. Gimme a break!" Ryo said laughingly. He glanced over at Jessica and their eyes met for a few brief moments. Rowen, once again, broke the awkwardness.

"I've... got the tickets you guys... uh, Kento? Kento?" everyone turned just in time to see Kento making a beeline to the refreshments stand.

"Oooh!! Oooh!! They've got gummy worms!! My favorite!!" they heard Kento from the other side of the room. Kento turned, ran back to the group and looked up at Jessica with a childlike look on his face as he said, "Oh, mommy, mommy, mommy? Can I pweeeeease have some, mommy?"

"Oh, get real, Kento!! I can see the ten hanging out of your pocket...!" She laughed and pushed him back towards the stand, which he didn't resist. "And while you're up there, you can get me a box of Milk-Duds, too!"

Kento turned and bowed to her. "As you wish, your majesty...." he said in a fake, royal accent. He then turned to the counter, bought the candy, then returned with an armload of candy. When Jessica asked for her Milk-Duds, a look of guilt spread over his face.

"I KNEW I forgot something...awwww, man I'm sorry!!"

Fifteen minutes later the group was seated in the theatre, Sage and Kento thankfully were at seperate ends of the row and Jessica was seated comfortably in the middle between Rowen and Cye. She settled back into the seat, munching the bowl of pop-corn that her and Rowen were sharing. She glanced around at the guys as the previews started. 'This isn't so bad, I could get used to hanging out with these guys! They aren't so bad as they seemed...' she thought and settled into the movie as it started.

* * *

[Part II][1]

   [1]: jes_chap2.htm



	4. Default Chapter Title

**.:Legacy of the Wind:.  
PART THREE: THE TRUTH HURTS.....THEIR JOURNEY BEGINS  
** By: Hoshi-chan

"Would someone care to explain exactly WHAT is going on here?" Ryo said.

"An explanation will come in due time," Kayura started. Breakfast was immediately forgotten as she continued, "there's been...... threats........ in the Netherworld. By an awesome force." Kayura explained.

"The dynasty!" Sage exclaimed.

"No, this force is much greater than the dynasty ever was or can be." Kayura said sadly.

"Zagoto........." Jessica quietly mumbled through her shaking hands.

"H-how....." Rowen asked.

"Right, as usual." Kayura went on, "Zagoto sent in his warriors into the Netherworld..... he's...... interested in it highly........and Earth as well........ after he retrieves the Jewel of Life, which he plans to get." Kayura said, turning to Mia. "You must protect the Jewel of Life WITH your life." she said. "If he should ever get his hands on it......... I do not want to think of what could....... of what WOULD happen......" she said sadly.

"Oh!" said Mia. "B-but...... why?"

"Power, more or likely. That's all he is...... is power-hungry. Dais, Cale, and Sekhmet have remained in the Netherworld to fight off any threats imposed upon them from Zagoto. But, just them and I are not enough...... that's...... why I came to you."

"You want us to help you fight off this creep?" Rowen said, more than he asked.

"Yes, I ask of your help in assisting us fight off this great evil."

"You bet."

"When will we be leaving?" Ryo asked.

"I was...... hoping...... as soon as possible. As soon as you can be ready. The threat is increasing every day. There's really no time to loose." Kayura explained.

"I guess, then, the soonest we can be ready to leave is tomorrow," Ryo said, slowly. Almost sadly.

Jessica sat in her chair thinking that if she didn't move, that if she didn't make a sound, that they would just forget that she was there. Forget that she even existed altogether. It would have been better that way........ No such luck.

"So, uh, Jessica? How do you exactly fit in with all of this?" Rowen asked.

"Yeah. I don't exactly see how you know about....... us....... or Kayura or...... Zagoto." Ryo added.

Jessica just sat there and squeezed her eyes shut tight. 'Just go away!' she thought. 'No more fighting!! I just can't take it!!' Jessica wanted to scream at them all to just leave her alone.

"Jessica......?" Kento asked quietly.

Kayura walked over and kneeled down next to Jessica in the chair. "Listen, I know that this is hard for you. It's hard for all of us. But you can't keep this a secret forever. You at least owe them an explanation."

"But....." she whispered to Kayura. "I don't............ remember. Anything."

"Just tell them what you DO know. What you DO remember." she said softly. 

Jessica fingered her silver necklace and watched it sparkle as a tear fell upon it. 'There's something about this necklace..... the key to my past.......... but.... what?' she thought as she slowly looked up from her hands and saw everyone looking at her, which made her want to cry even more. The look on their faces - shock, amazement, suprise, and was there even fear? 'I - I can't......' she thought. 'But.... I must. I owe it to them........'

Jessica took a deep breath and started her story, her voice quivering with each word, as if she might very well burst into tears again. "I - I don't remember much about my past. I don't remember anything about my past, at all, except of someone telling me that I needed to find the Ronin Warriors, someone who loved and cared for me very much........" she said as another tear fell upon her necklace. "I..... needed them to help me.......... remember my past. I know Kayura from the Dynasty..... just....... flashbacks..... And I know Zagoto because I thought I defeated him...... 150 years ago." Tears started welling back up in her eyes. "I only remember me, and my cat Magic, a-and my silver necklace with the light-blue crystal-looking thing on it....." she said. "My necklace........ Magic watches over it for me sometimes. I don't know anything else..... th-that's all so far......." she said, standing up. "But, I can tell you, I can assure you that I will fight Zagoto beside you....."

"No!" Sage said, jumping up. "We-we can't let you risk that!! Risk your life!!"

Jessica just smiled, despite the atmosphere and situation in the room. "You don't know the half part. And neither do I....... but let me assure you that I will not let you down. I am a courageous and noble fighter..... and I will stick by your side the entire way......" Jessica thought, startled 'Where did that come from?' she thought, unsure if it were her who said it, or someone else. A warrior within? 'I am a fighter? How?'

"But - " Cye started.

Kayura held up her hand. "No, Sage, Cye, let her fight. She is true to her word and will be very helpful in time of battle."

'I am?? How?' Jessica thought.

Suddenly, Jessica remembered Magic. "I - I have to go home t-to feed Magic....." she stuttered.

"Ok, I..... guess I'll drive you back to your house then." Ryo said, standing up.

"I will, too," Rowen said and stood up also.

Cye watched as they left the room. "Jessica is involved in this? I - I don't believe this....." he said to noone in particular.

"Yeah, and I don't even have an appetite anymore." Kento said.

"Heh, THAT'S a first." Sage said from the back of the room.

Mia left the room and returned with two boxes........ one of which contained the Jewel of Life, and the other which contained the five Ronin's glowing Orbs.

"I never thought that we'd ever have to use these....... again....." Mia said.

"Yeah," Sage, Sai, and Kento agreed.

"So, we'll...... be set to leave tomorrow, then?" Kayura dimly said. Four heartbroken 'yes's responded.

"I am very sorry that I had to bring you such grim news, but it was either I came to ask for your help, or let the Netherworld and Earth be...... taken over and destroyed...."

"We understand, Kayura. It's....... not your fault." Sage said as they all sat in silence, waiting for Ryo and Rowen's return.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Ryo, Rowen, and Jessica sat silently in the car as Ryo drove to bring Jessica back to her house. Jessica looked out the window the whole way home, praying that neither one of them would talk to her. Rowen sat silent in the front passenger-side seat, looking out the window as well at the passing landscape and houses that flew by.

Ryo turned down a familiar street, and Jessica knew that she was almost to her house. When they got there, Ryo cut the engine and the three just sat there in silence again for a minute or two before saying "You'd...... better go feed Magic, now." and staring straight ahead.

'They're not...... mad....... at me, are they?' she thought, terrified. "Y-you aren't......mad at me? Are you?" Jessica asked timidly. The first thing she's said since Mia's and not bursted into tears.

"What? Oh, no. It's just......." Rowen said, turning around. "We weren't ready for a blow like this. To learn that....... you....... of all people, are connected to us. In whatever way you are, I don't know. WE don't know. But....... you are and that's the point and if you want to fight with us against this....... Zagoto person, then.... I'm more than willing to let you."

"Yes, I agree. Just......" Ryo said, turning to Jessica with a small half-smile on his face, "No more suprises, ok?"

Jessica laughed in spite of herself. "Ok...." 'But how do I know for sure? That's the point. I DON'T......know anything.......' "I.... guess I'd better go, now, Magic is probably angry with me, I've been away for so long......"

"Yes, we'll....... pick you up tomorrow, then? Around......... 10:30? I don't know what time the guys want to...... leave ...... we'll call you. Ok?"

"Yeah, sure." She said, climbing out of the car. She walked up to her front door and opened it, turning around as Ryo started the car and closed the door as he drove off. Almost at once, Magic leaped up at her, almost as if saying, 'Where were you? Where's my food? How could you leave me alone here all by myself like this?'

"Oh, Magic!!!" Jessica cried, as she buried her face in his soft black fur. "It's all just so..... unreal! As if I'm walking in a dream.... a horrible, horrible nightmare that can't be real........ but it is!"

Magic's ears stuck straight up. 'What?' he thought. 'What's wrong, my mistress? What has happened to make you so sad and upset?' He brushed up against her, trying to comfort her. But as a cat, it was very hard to do. So instead, he took her necklace in his mouth and tugged on it.

"Wha-what are you doing, you silly cat?" Jessica almost had to smile at her cat. Magic really was beautiful, a rare black Korat with two white paws, he really was remarkable. She had received him as a gift from a...... friend? A very, very long time ago......

Jessica stood up to get him his food. She opened the pantry door and grabbed his bag of cat food. She poured it into his bowl and set it on the floor, where he hurriedly ran over and began eating the food up as if he hadn't eaten in a week. Jessica then began to make arrangements for her trip tomorrow. Magic looked up from eating and observed her scurrying around the house, gathering up items and looking sad. Magic licked his lips and meowed, asking her what's wrong. Jessica heard him meow and turned around, smiling at him.

"Oh, Magic. You won't believe...... what has happened. What I have discovered." Jessica sat down wearily on the couch and Magic jumped up into her lap. "You know those five guys that I've been hanging around with, huh?" she said, scratching him behind his ears. "Well, I went to the carnival with them last night and....... saw......... Whitney." Magic stopped purring and looked around worriedly. 'Has something happened??' Magic thought. "Then I - I blacked out and....... when I woke up I was at Mia's house and then I fell back asleep again." she paused, a tear rolled down her cheek. "At breakfast that morning, of all people," she laughed, despite of everything, "it was Lady Kayura. She was there on account of that...... the five guys were...... the Ronin Warriors." she whispered.

Magic jumped up. 'H-how can this BE? Right under my nose and I didn't even realize it?? Oh, how could I have been so STUPID? Now all of our problems will be solved!! The Ronin Warriors have finally been found........' Magic purred excitedly and rubbed up against Jessica.

"B-but," Jessica said in a tone of voice that made Magic stop dead in his tracks, "Kayura was there to tell the Ronin Warriors that...... Zagoto....... has returned and is more powerful than ever, and will stop at nothing to retrieve the Jewel of Life and rule over the Netherworld and the planet Earth......" Jessica wiped the tears from her face and sniffed as she said, "And I have decided to join them in fighting against Zagoto. It's..... the least I can do. We are going to leave tomorrow........ and, naturally," she smiled through her tears, "I'm going to take you with me. How can I leave you behind after all that you've done for me?"

'No! No, this can not be!! Zagoto is DEAD!! He was defeated 150 years ago....... by..... an unnamed source and amazing power...... he can not be back! Oh, this shall mean trouble for us all!' Magic jumped down and sat pouting in his usual patch of sunlight under the window in the livingroom.

Jessica just sat there on the couch for a good long while until, when the phone rang an hour and a half later, she moved.

She needn't ask who it was, for she already knew. It was Rowen. "H-hello?" she answered, her voice trembling.

"Jessica?" came the voice from the other end of the line. "It's me, Rowen."

"Yeah." she said quietly into the receiver.

"Yeah, well, umm, we've decided to leave around...... 9:00, so we'll come to get you at 8:45 then, alright?"

"Sure, that's...... fine." she answered.

"And Jessica? I'm...... sorry. For what's happened. We all are. And, we'll still always be the guys that ya met at school, k?"

Jessica had to smile. "Yeah, ok Rowen. I'll...... see you at 8:45 then?"

"Right. Bye...."

"Bye, Rowen." she said quietly and hung the receiver up.

If she was going to go through with this, she had to have a better attitude. If you went into the Netherworld to fight some evil trash with an attitude like that, they'd eat you up!! 'C'mon, girl!! Pull yourself together! We've got a job to do, and save the world, I might add,' She said to herself. 'I've GOT to get my act together. Think straight. And practice my fighting....'

Jessica walked down to her basement where her training equipment was all there and waiting. She threw off the sheets that covered the equipment, and set to work. Punching, hitting, dodging; she practiced it all and more, all to get ready for the long and strenuous battle that was SURE to be fought. 'And it won't be easy.......' she thought and she punched the bag harder and harder as all the anger flew out from her mind through her hands. She swung around and kicked the bag soo hard, that it burst. She stopped then, panting, and thinking about her past. What she remembered of her past, and her future, or what was left of it. 'I can't let it end this way.....' she thought as she walked upstairs and realized that an hour had gone by since she walked down into the basement.

She walked upstairs and climbed into the shower, then put her pajamas on and finished gathering stuff to bring with her that she'd need for her trip to the Netherworld. She opened up the trunk at the foot of her bed, pulling out her battling clothing - that looked very much like Lady Kayura's except that Jessica's were a light blue and purple-ish in color. Jessica took it and hung it in front of an open window to rid it of it's dust that it had collected over the years. 'It's funny,' she thought, 'I don't remember how I got this or why, or when I ever used it, but it seems as if I have somehow.... before. In my past...'

Jessica then walked back up to the trunk and dug around in it even deeper until she found two pouches that contained a dagger in each. The sacks hung on either side of her waist. She set these on the table by her battle outfit, as she called it. She then dug out her soft leather boots that had hidden discs in them that she could use to throw at enemies and hurt them badly. She sighed at the sight of her clothes and weapons and the nightmare that she was living in finally became real. She set a grim expression on her face, her jaw set, and was determined to defeat Zagoto for the last and final time - if it were the last thing she did.

In the very bottom of the trunk, Jessica found a picture of a woman and a small girl, taken a very, very long time ago. 'Could this be..... me? A - and my...... mother?' Jessica thought. 'I - I do not know......' She looked up from the picture and out her bedroom window as the sun began to set, playing soft colors of gold, purple, pink, blue and lavender against the darkening sky. Another tear slid down her cheek, and the room became darker as the sun set. Pretty soon, Jessica was bathed in darkness, much as she would if she did not fight Zagoto......... much as the whole WORLD would be covered with his evil blackness. "I - I've GOT to do this. I can't back out now. I must do this for me..... and for the entire planet!! And for the Ronin Warriors....... and most of all for my parents........ who I don't even know....."

Jessica sat there at her trunk where she fell asleep that night, and woke up in the same place early that morning. Jessica woke up and looked up, noticing the sky brightening as dawn approached. She saw Magic sleeping on the foot of the bad, right above from where her head was resting on the trunk's closed lid. She quietly got up, trying not to disturb Magic and tip-toed out of the room, grabbing her 'fighting attire' and headed to the bathroom where she got ready to go and put on her clothes, hanging the pouches with the daggers on either side of her waist, and slipping her boots on. Then she twisted the sides of her hair and joined them together in the back in a braid, much like a Queen Guinevere look. Two long strands of hair fell lightly around her face, and the rest cascaded down her back. Then Jessica looked at the time. It was only 7:45. She still had almost an hour to get ready....... to leave......

She stepped downstairs and fixed herself a bowl of cereal. She sat there, looking at her cereal getting soggy in the cold milk. She didn't really have an appetite, but she had to eat something before leaving. Of course Dais, Cale, and Sekhmet had to have something to eat there, so they wouldn't starve.... she smiled. 'But Kento just might.....' she thought and smiled lightly. She played with the cereal in her bowl and finally sighed and stood up, carrying the bowl over to the sink. 'I'd better just grab a pop-tart or something to eat on the way to Mia's.....' she sighed and grabbed a pack of them. Not to mention a bag of pretzels, her favorite.

Jessica ran back upstairs to double-check everything and to make sure that she wasn't forgetting anything. She tickled Magic's stomach who then stood up, stretched, and rubbed against her. "C'mon, you silly cat. We've got to get ready to leave.... soon!!" Magic hopped down off the bed and Jessica followed him through her bedroom door. When she reached downstairs, she placed some food in his bowl for him to eat before they left and grabbed her knapsack that was laying next to the table. She needed that to carry her stuff around in, not to mention snacks that they may need on the way......

Jessica was sitting at the table watching Magic crunch on his food when there was a knock on her front door. She sat up. It was time to go already?? Sure enough, the clock confirmed the time as she stood up to let the guys in. They were trying to make light of the situation, but noone could hide the fact that they were about to face a dreadful and treacherous battle. "Do you...... have anything to eat?? I worked up an appetite driving over here....." Ryo asked.

"Shouldn't Kento be the one asking that?" she laughed and handed Ryo the bag of pretzels she was holding as she bent down to pick up Magic, who had already finished his food. Magic now looked at the five in a whole different way than he had before. 'I can now activate the jewel!! And help my mistress!! But, how?' he thought and meowed to the five sadly.

"Hey, little guy!" Rowen said, scratching Magic's chin. "You're coming with us, too!! We wouldn't leave you behind."

"Yeah. Well, I guess it's........ time to go now, guys." Cye said from the back of the group. The others sighed and and nodded in agreement.

Jessica turned to Magic, who was staring up at her from her feet and said, "Let's go now, Magic. Our adventure awaits....."

The six walked out the door and climbed into the van, and Ryo started driving over to Mia's, munching on pretzels all the while. "Hey...... don't be hogging them all!!" Kento exclaimed from the back seat and reached over Jessica's shoulder trying to reach the bag.

"Kento, haven't you eaten enough already??" Sage said from next to Jessica.

"Well, I didn't want my food to go bad while we were gone!!" he said sheepishly.

"What?" Jessica turned around to face him, laughing. "You mean to tell me you ate all the food in your house?? That was, like, a month's worth of food! You shoulda invited me over!!"

"It wasn't like I didn't have help, mind you.......... and we did try to call your house but you didn't answer."

"Oh, that was because I was probably asleep." she said, turning back around and petting Magic's back.

"Well, here we are." Ryo said, turning into Mia's driveway. "Netherworld, here we come!!"

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Kento, Sage, Cye, Ryo, Rowen, Jessica, and Lady Kayura were all seated in Mia's livingroom waiting for Mia to show up with the Jewel of Life, their doorway to the Netherworld. Noone spoke; Jessica stared at her hands, and Sage and Rowen mostly stared out the window. Only Magic seemed to not realize the awkwardness in the room as he walked around to the guys and rubbed up against them. Jessica had to smile as he jumped up into her lap and tugged on her necklace, then jumped over to the guys and walked across all five of their laps. 'Silly cat.....' she thought as she held her necklace in her fingers. He'd been doing that since they got there. It was as if he was trying to tell her something.......

'Doesn't she get it?' Magic said as he jumped back up into her lap and tugged on her necklace with his mouth. 'I don't exactly know what the secret of this necklace is, or what will happen, or how to activate it...... ohhhhh.' Magic said as he gave up and plopped down on Jessica's lap.

Finally Mia walked into the room, holding the Jewel of Life in her hand as she walked over to the quiet group. "Well, I guess its time....." Mia said quietly as they all stood up, surrounding Mia and the Jewel. Jessica held Magic in her arms as Mia held up the Jewel and they were all surrounded by a light. When the light cleared, they were standing in a dark and bleak world.

"Ohh...." Kayura gasped. "This was not as I had left it..... he's..... sending in more and more warriors every minute, and just us four couldn't keep up with their multiplying numbers." She buried her face in her hands. "I.... hate to see it this way....."

Magic leaped from Jessica's hands and smelled the air. 'This place seems awfully familiar.....' he thought as he explored the area that they were in. He heard a faint noise and he looked up, straining to hear any sound. There is was again!! Magic ran in the direction of the noise.

"Magic? Hey, Magic!!" Jessica cried as she ran after him.

"Wha - hey, Jessica!! Come back here! It's too dangerous...." the others cried as thy ran after her.

Magic continued to run, the cries becoming louder and louder still until finally he could see three figures up in the distance surrounded by millions others. Jessica stopped directly behind him, and the others right behind Jessica.

"I - it's Cale, Sekhmet, and Dais!!" Kayura cried as they all almost fell to the ground. They were fighting off the warriors fiercely as the five Ronin Warriors called their arms and ran towards the three. Kayura armored up, also, and ran towards them, right behind the Ronins.

"What a way to start out here. This isn't exactly a great first impression..." Jessica muttered. She stayed behind to protect Mia in case they snuck up on them. Jessica heard a sound from behind her and whipped around, her fingers curling around her daggers on her waist. She saw a shadow moving right behind Mia. "Mia, watch out!!" Jessica cried as the figure ran towards Mia.

Jessica jumped towards her, shoving her out of the way while kicking the warrior in its gut, sending it flying against a crumpled building. She ran towards the fallen warrior, who was trying to stand up, and jabbed her dagger into it's chest. It's eyes popped open wide as it screamed with pan, then closed. She withdrew her dagger as she heard a scream from Mia.

She turned around to see Mia surrounded with warriors.

"We know you have the Jewel of Life, and our master wishes to posses it." one snarled.

"Never!!" Mia screamed, looking around desperately for a way out of their closing circle around her. Mia looked up as she saw Jessica running towards her and kicking the warriors out of her way. She slashed at them with her daggers and had them all taken out in a few quick jabs.

"C'mon, Mia!" Jessica said, grabbing her wrist and running. "We've got to get you out of here." She found a suitable hiding place and turned to her. "You stay here. I must go help the others..... please watch after Magic, ok?" she half smiled then ran towards the others. Magic frightfully jumped into Mia's lap and surveyed the battle scene.

Sage was throwing off the warriors effortlessly while Rowen was showering them with arrows. Ryo and Kento were making their way through the mass of warriors; stalling them so Kayura and Cye could get the warlords to safety. Jessica ran up to Kayura and Cye. "There's a place.... over there...." she said pointing to where Mia and Magic were. "Mia's there..." she panted.

"Thanks," Kayura said as Jessica ran head into the battle, slashing the warriors effortlessly as she made her way to Rowen. "Need any help??" she half-jokingly said.

"Nah, we're just getting the crap beat out of us, but we've pretty much got it under control...." he replied as a warrior jumped at him. Jessica dug her dagger into it's side, and it fell to the ground. "Thanks..... Rowen said and continued to shoot one arrow after another at the endless amount of warriors that faced the five.

Kayura and Cye returned to the battle scene and started swiping and hitting them with their weapons. Ryo tried to shake off the warriors on his back, but where he realized he couldn't, he drew his katanas above his head, gathering energy, then bringing them back down again, crying, "FLARE UP....... NOW!!!!!" and knocked out a whole line of them

"Use your special attacks, guys!" Jessica yelled to the others who nodded. All around you could hear the cries of the other five's moves and the crash as the last warrior finally fell down. "Phew!" Jessica said as she wiped the blood from her arms from the cuts she got.

"Hey, you're bleeding!" Kento cried.

"Oh, nothing major." she smiled. "Watch...." She chanted some foreign words as the others watched in amazement as light poured from the wounds, then disappeared and they were magically healed. "I can only do that to me, and only if I have minor wounds and a decent amount of energy left."

"Neat!" Sage said. "Well, we'd better get back to the others. There may be other warriors there stalking the four."

"Yeah!!" Ryo cried as they ran to Mia, Cale, Dais, and Sekhmet. They reached there and found that all was well. Cale, Dais, and Sekhmet had regained a lot of their strength lost in battle, and Sage was able to heal what little wounds they had and they stood up, good as new.

Cale then turned to Jessica, whose hair was matted against the sides of her face, and some strands soaked with blood. "Is that..... you? Jessica??" when she nodded, Cale smiled and gave her a hug.

"Hey!! Jessica!" Dais and Sekhmet cried and hugged her also. "What are you doing here?"

"Fighting off a very old friend...... and I wish to pay him my respects, what little I have for him, at his funeral. Which WILL take place, I assure you."

"You seem pretty sure about that. You don't realize how much power he has gained since you last saw him." Dais said.

"Y-yes, I realize that he is much stronger than last time. As if time had made him stronger.... but, I assure you that he will go down. And I will defeat him for the final time."

The others decided not to question her as they powered down to their sub armors. "Well, first we've got to find out where the source of these warriors are coming from....." Ryo said, looking around. "If we attack them all at once, we might be rid of the majority of them and have a better chance to defeat this..... Zagoto..... person."

"Right." Dais agreed. "We've been trying to track them down, but they seem to come from all kinds of different places. We can't pinpoint their exact location. It's as if.... they move from day to day. But we don't know how....!!"

"True....... but what if we send out someone to scope out the area and 'spy' on these guys?? Watch where they're going to or coming from.....?" Mia suggested.

"That..... might just work!" Sekhmet said.

"But who would want to go out there and scope out the area??" Mia asked.

"Sage and I could," Rowen said.

"Yeah," Sage agreed.

"Alright, then. We'll be trying to keep an eye on you two while you're spying on those.... warriors." Mia said as they started off. Dais, Sekhmet, and Cye walked up a few yards ontop a hill, well hidden, to keep an eye on Sage and Rowen. The remaining five sat down and started trying to think of a plan.

"So, where is Zagoto?" Ryo asked. "I mean, is he like Talpa at all or.... what? We have no idea of what he is like whatsoever and we need to to be able to defeat him, or try to."

"He.... lives in a palace. More or likely Talpa's old one. But they've sealed off all the entrances, the gates have totally disappeared and we have no way of going in or out. But the warriors somehow are always able to make their way to us from the palace." Cale said. "Dais, Sekhmet, and I have been trying to follow them, as you're doing now, but with no luck."

Jessica sat quietly, thinking to herself, watching Magic playing with her necklace again. 'What's up with him and my necklace??' she thought. 'There must be some connection between it and something that's going on now.... the Ronin Warriors?? But, then it would have activated a long time ago when I first met them.... it's useless.' Magic looked up at her. 'And there's.... something..... about him, too.' she thought as she pulled him into her lap and tuned the conversation back in.

The sky started to grow night and the five had not yet returned. They were starting to get worried about them. "I hope that nothing serious has happened to them," Kento said.

"Me, too." The rest replied.

It was continuing to grow darker as they heard someone's footsteps approaching. Jessica looked up from the fire that they had made earlier. She saw a shadow coming closer. Jessica put her hands on her daggers as the figure continued to advance on the group until finally, the light from the fire revealed his face. "Rowen!" she cried. "You frightened me!!" The others were asleep.

"I'm sorry. I left the other guys to come tell you that they haven't found anything yet, but the warriors are all over the place out there!! There's swarms of them!"

"Do you need our help?" she asked.

"Oh, no, they haven't spotted us quite yet. No battles have broken out.... yet. But one is sooner or later. And I also came to warn you that the troops are moving in this direction, so it would be wise to move."

"Y-yes." Jessica said and stood up. "So we move now, or will we have time in the morning?"

"You.... should have time in the morning. But I'd suggest putting that fire out.... they can spot it from way back there. I did coming up."

"Oh," Jessica said and tossed some dirt over the fire, smoldering it. She watched it slowly die down. 'As we might?' she thought, sighing.

"Well, I'd better get back to the others. Be careful, ok? Move out early tomorrow morning. We..... should be back by then, though. I'll see ya." Rowen said and walked back off.

"Good-bye......" Jessica said softly as she laid down and watched his shadow slowly blend with the darkness and finally disappear. "Good luck." she whispered before falling into a restless sleep.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Kayura heard some noise and she opened her eyes. The fire, someone had put it out and dawn was just breaking. She sat up and saw the others sleeping around her. But.... Jessica? Kayura looked around and saw her sitting awake, watching the horizon.

"Jessica?" she called to her. She turned around and smiled.

"Hey. Good morning." she said.

Kayura walked over to her and sat down beside her. "What's going on?"

Jessica turned to face her. "Last night when you were all sleeping Rowen came back. He told me that troops were moving in this direction and that we should move out by early morning,"

"Oh!" Kayura exclaimed. "Wh-why didn't one of you wake me up?"

"He said it'd be safe to wait until morning. And he also said that they'd be back before..... by now. And they aren't. I'm starting to worry." She said, hugging her knees.

"Yes," Kayura said, looking out upon the horizon as the first rays of dawn broke through. "I think that it's time that we went out to look for them. They may be in trouble and in need of our help."

"I agree. I think we should wake the others and start out, as Rowen instructed for us to do." she said, standing up.

"Yes," Kayura said and followed her over to where the guys were sleeping. Kayura shook on them gently. "Hey, Ryo, Kento, Cale, wake up."

Kento rolled over and mumbled something that sounded like, "But mom, I don't wanna go to school today. Just five more minutes......" before he started snoring again. But Ryo woke up.

"What's up?" he said and sat up. He turned to Kento and smacked him on his back, which woke him up.

"Hey........! What was THAT for??" He cried, sitting up and rubbing his back.

"To wake you up. Now, listen," Kayura said as she explained the situation.

"Whoa, and they're STILL not back?" Ryo exclaimed.

"That's not good at all." Cale said.

"Nope. So we've got to go look for them, they may be in trouble." Jessica calmly said. She looked at Magic sleeping curled up on a cover near to where she had been sleeping.

The others got their stuff together, all but aware of the danger of approaching warriors, if they were coming. They packed up and started off. Everyone was silent for most of the way until they saw some commotion up ahead. "What - who is that?" Ryo said, straining to see.

"I-I don't know....." Kayura answered. "Maybe... it's the other guys!" she exclaimed.

"Maybe..... but I wouldn't be too sure about that," Kento said. "Remember, there was only five of them..... and there's lots of those guys."

"Yeah, you're right." Ryo sighed. "But, still. They may have them, though."

"Well, how do we know for sure? That'll be a pretty risky chance to take." Kayura said, surveying the long line of now obvious warriors. "But..... it looks like they're headed straight in this direction!! We'd better move!" she yelled as they started running the other way. They found an overturned building and ran underneath the ruins, being deadly silent. They dared not even to breathe for fear of being caught.

"What are we hiding for?" Kento hissed quietly. "We should be out there fighting those slime bags!! Not running from them!! Do you want them to think of us as cowards?"

"No, Kento. But if they DO have the guys.... we do not want to fall prey to them, to, and be captured right away, now do we? We have to preserve out energy and strength in case we have to battle to free them." Kayura whispered.

"Right........." Jessica agreed and they all became silent when they started to hear the sound of approaching footsteps. They gaped at the endless amount of them. It was nearly ten minutes before they all passed through. After they had all passed by, Jessica said, "Now you see why we want to preserve our strength now instead of battling them? Look at how many there were!! Us four would have been no match for them whatsoever!"

"She's right. Now, we'd better get going before we run into them again." Cale said and they all stood up and continued their venture through the Netherworld in search of their friends.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Can you see anything?" Dais whispered to Cye, who was crouched down directly next to him.

"No, I can't see anything. It's too dark. I - I hope they're all right!" Cye said, squinting into the vast blackness.

Sage and Rowen had been following a rather large group of warriors, trying to find out how they got in and out of Zagoto's palace. All was going rather well, until the large group just seemed to vanish into this huge cave. Rowen and Sage bravely followed them in, but at a safe distance. And Dais, Sekhmet, and Cye were standing guard right outside of the cave. The inside was so dark, you could barely see anything; not even your hand in front of your face.

So when the group disappeared into the cave, the three started to worry. "They've been in there for too long. I say we go in there after them," Sekhmet said as he started to stand up, but Dais grabbed him and shoved him back down.

"Don't you realize that they probably already have a trap set up in there for us? They might have figured out that we have been following them this entire way and concocted a plan to capture us. I'm just glad that Ryo, Cale, Kento, Jessica, and Kayura are still behind in case anything happens to us." Dais said.

"Yes," Cye agreed, "But they may have been captured by that other huge group of warriors that was headed in their direction. Oh, I hope that isn't true!" Cye exclaimed.

"Ssh!" Dais whispered and held up his hand to silence the other two. He could hear cried from deep inside the cave. "It's the others!! They're in trouble!" he exclaimed.

"We must go in there to help them!" Sekhmet said.

"Yes, let's go, I don't care if I'm endangering my life. My friends are in trouble, and they need our help." Cye added as the three ran fearlessly into the darkness.

Once inside the cave, the three could only rely on instinct and each other. They had no choice but to hold on to each others' arms so they wouldn't get seperated. They were deathly silent as they strained to hear any sound to the location of their friends.

"Do you hear anything?" Cye whispered quietly.

"Yes, your annoying voice. Now shutup so we can listen for them!" Sekhmet snapped.

"Whoa, calm down, Sekhmet, he only asked a question." Dais told him.

Sekhmet then muttered something under his breath that was untranslatable for the other two, and they headed deeper into the cave. A little farther down, they could hear footsteps. "Quick!" Dais said, pushing them towards what seemed to be a wall. "Stay close to the wall." The three leaned against the wall and listened hard for the footsteps to walk slowly past them, then they heard their echo as they walked away.

"Now, come on!" Cye said as the three continued to run down into the cave. Far ahead, too small yet to see who or what it was, was a small fire. "Is that.... their camp?" Dais whispered to noone in particular.

"It looks like it," Sekhmet responded, then tensed up as they heard voices directly behind them.

"Pssst!! Pssst! Guys, over here!" a voice that sounded strangely like Sage's called out to them.

"S - Sage, Rowen?" Cye called.

"Yes, we're over here!" Sage called back.

"Over where? We can't see a thing in this darkness." Dais called out softly to the two.

"Well, Sage would use his armor to help you, but then the warriors would see us and we'd all be toast, especially since the odds are way against us at the time." Rowen said.

"So, how are we going to find you?" Sekhmet said discouraged.

"I'll tap on the ground softly with this rock, and you walk towards the direction of the noise." Rowen said and started tapping the ground with the rock.

The three hung on to each other and listened hard, inching their way around the darkness until finally, fifteen minutes later, Rowen grabbed Cye's arm. "Here we are, buddy!" He happily said from the shadows as the others hid there, too.

"So, what have you found so far?" Sekhmet demanded.

"Well, actually, not much. We've..... been following them around an awfully lot, and this is where they led us to. It's as if they know that we're following them and are trying to misguide us...... or make us walk right into a trap." Sage said.

"Well, I suggest that we get out of here while we still can." Cye announced.

"I'm all for that," Rowen added and all the others agreed as they started to run back the way in which they had come.

Soon, about thirty minutes later, they saw a light at the end of the cave. The exit!! They could see better, and when they got out of the cave, they hid in some bushes.

"So where are we going to go now?" Sekhmet whispered to the others.

"Well, I think that we should try to find the others, Kayura, Mia, Ryo, Kento, Cale, and Jessica. Then we should get ready to kick some dynasty --" Rowen was cut off.

About ten warriors had overheard them whispering in the bushes and were charging for an attack upon them. The five no sooner than jumped out of the way than a sword came crashing down into the ground where they had just been.

"Careful, guys!" Sage called to them as he ran up behind a warrior and shoved his sword through their back.

"This shouldn't be too hard," Sekhmet grinned as he knocked out three warriors with one jab of three of his katanas, and another three warriors with his other three katanas.

Rowen fired arrows into two more of the warriors' chests, and Cye knocked the other one out with a blow to his head from his Trident.

"Wow, THAT was hard," Dais grinned. "But now we've got to get out of here. Others warriors may have heard the cries from our battle and are coming to check it out. Let's go!" he said as they started running from the cave.

"I wonder where the others are," Cye panted as they ran along the road, powering down to their sub armors along the way.

"Probably out looking for us. We may see them on the way. Hey! Stop!" Rowen cried as they spotted a huge crowd of warriors marching towards them in the distance. "Let's get out of the way before they see us!" he said as the three ran for shelter in a nearby torn-down building. The line of marching warriors seemed to go on forever, until finally the line ended. They waited a few minutes before peeking out to make sure it was safe when they heard voices once again.

"Ssh!" Dais hissed. "Do you hear that? Those are not the voices of the warriors. The sound vaguely like......"

"Jessica, Mia, Ryo, Kento, and Cale!!" Cye cried as he ran towards them, who startlingly spun around at the sound of Cye's voice. They then broke out into smiles.

"You're alright!" Jessica cried, hugging them all.

"Yes," Ryo said, "I...... guess you saw that herd of warriors that just stormed by."

"Did we ever! Was there even an end to them?" Sage said. "This time we're in way over our heads. But.... if we stick together and fight 'till the end, we'll make it through. I'm not giving up, no matter what!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah!" the other eight warriors, Mia, and Jessica exclaimed. Then the group sat down and began talking seriously.

"So, have you found a way into his palace?" Mia inquired.

"Well... not quite." they told her sadly. "We think they were leading us right into a trap, so we got the heck outa there. After we got out of the cave, we were ambushed by about ten warriors, nothing we couldn't handle. We flung them off like a bunch of flies. But when you put a whole bunch together......." Dais trailed off.

"But, if we set our minds to it and work together, we'll put an end to this evil once and for all!" Sekhmet exclaimed.

"Yeah... but even if our powers aren't enough......... can we still defeat Zagoto?" Ryo said sadly.

"All we can do is try our best, Ryo. And even if we don't defeat him, in a way we'll still have won." Rowen said reassuringly.

"Yeah, you're right."

They continued to walk down the road some more, looking for anymore signs of approaching warriors as the sky grew dark overhead.

"Man," Kento said, rubbing his stomach, "I haven't eaten in ages."

"And you just now noticed that you were hungry?" Mia teased.

"Well, yeah..." he said. When Jessica pulled out a bag of chips that she had stashed in her knapsack, Kento ran over to her and begged her for them.

Jessica just looked at him and laughed as she handed him the bag. "But leave some for us!"

"Too late," Cye said, holding up the already empty bag.

"Gosh, Kento, is your mouth, like, a vacuum or something?" Rowen said, looking at his mouth in wonder.

"Hmph!" Kento said. "What do you think?"

"It must be magic they way you made those chips disappear so fast!" Ryo jokingly added.

Kento walked over to him shaking his fist. "You're right. I have a magic mouth. And I also have a magic fist... one second you see it, the next you see stars!!" The group started to laugh.

"No, Kento, that's ok. All we have to do is look up... " Jessica said, gazing up into the sky which was filled with stars.

"Yeah... it's just a shame that, if Zagoto wins... that we'll never be able to see the stars again..." Mia said, looking up into the sky like Jessica.

The group happened upon a nice, hidden spot in which to spend the night. They didn't want to risk being seen by any warrior spies, so they did not light a fire that night. The moonlight was bright enough to see everything clearly, and the place they had picked was overlooking a flat valley, that stretched on for miles. Miles before their destination at Talpa's old castle. Which was now ruled by Zagoto. Just the mention of his name or the thought of him brought anger and fear into their eyes.

It was getting late, and Jessica laid out her knapsack and curled up on a thin blanket, resting her head on her knapsack. Magic walked over to her and curled up beside her. All around you could hear yawns as the others grew tired, too. All yawns and some growling...

"Kento?" Sage said, sitting up. "You're STILL hungry? After all that food...?"

"Actually, yes, but that ISN'T me..." he said, glaring at Sage. Rowen sat up.

"You guys, actually, that's ME..." he said and smiled sheepishly. "Heh... heh... I kinda worked up an appetite now, too, now that you mention food again..."

Jessica just groaned silently and pretended to be asleep, thankful that she was resting her head on her knapsack so the others, mostly Kento, wouldn't raid it at night. She smiled and rolled over, gazing up into the sky. For as long as she can remember, and that isn't that far, she had always loved to watch the stars, gaze up into the clear, night sky. She laid like that, watching stars shooting overhead and making their way across the night sky, until she closed her eyes and softly fell asleep.

That was the last thing any of them remembered that night, gazing up into the sky, before they all fell asleep...

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The next morning, Jessica awoke to the sun beaming right into her face. She groaned and rolled over away from the light, thinking that she was in her old bed at home. It reminded her of that morning... of the mornings at her house when the sun would stream in through her lace curtains and wake her... no alarm clock needed...

Jessica opened her eyes then immediately wanted to close them again. 'No,' she thought, 'It... it is all a nightmare and can't be true...' She wanted to tell herself that what she was in was a living nightmare, that it wasn't true, that... that... everything would all be ok eventually. Oh, if only it were true...

She sat up and stretched her arms which were cramped from her hard bed on the ground. She looked around at the others who were slowly waking up too. This was only their third day in the Netherworld, their second full one, and already no leads of how to reach Zagoto have turned up. Today would prove to be a full day of hard, grueling searching for an almost hopeless entranceway into the castle.

Kento was easy to get up this time, and suprisingly he wasn't even hungry... until Jessica noticed another bag of chips missing. "Kento..." she said, glaring at him.

"Who... me?" he said defensively.

"Nooooo..." Ryo said, slapping him on his back. "The OTHER Kento, don't you know who we're talking about?"

"Ooooooh, THAT Kento..." Cye chimed in. "Yeah..."

Kento stared at the ground as his face got redder from anger. "STOP IT!!" he cried. He was huffing and puffing because of his anger, and with his face so red, it reminded the group of a joke...

"Kento!! Wow, your face... that reminds me of the day in the cafeteria!! When we commented on how, when your face gets bright red, you look like a ripe tomato!!" Rowen laughed.

"Yeah..." Kento said, slowly looking up at the group. "And then remember what I did?"

"Uhhhh...... uh-oh!!" Jessica shrieked and jumped up. "I didn't have anything to do with this!! Why are you picking on meeee??" she yelled at him playfully as he ran over and picked her up, running around with her over his shoulder.

The group laughed. "What is this about?" Dais and Cale wondered out loud.

Cye turned to them. "A reenactment of what happened during lunch one day at school, it's... an inside joke, really." he half smirked at the clueless four.

"You guys, stop!! We've got some serious stuff to do without you all running around like chickens with their heads cut off!! Now, come on!!" Kayura yelled at the six.

Kento immediately stopped running and with Jessica still over his shoulder. When Kayura was in charge, there was no fooling around.

"Come ON, you guys!! You know better than this. This is serious, and it is not something that you can just brush off as nothing, or joke around. This is something. And this something needs to be taken care of, without fooling around. That is the last thing we need right now." Mia scolded them.

"Mia, you're right. But we can't be all tense and serious all of the time, ya know? We need breaks, too, like any other human being!!" Kento pointed out.

"Yes, Kento, but..."

"You know, he's right. But you're right, too Mia." Sage compromised. "There's a time for work and a time for play. And right now is definitely NOT the time to play around."

"So, then, when IS the time to have fun? Loosen up? Joke around and relieve some of this stress that is eating away at us? SOMETHING has too or we're just going to... to crack!" Kento exclaimed angrily.

"It seems like he's ON crack..." Sekhmet whispered to Cale. Kento glared at him.

"Kento...?" Jessica whispered to him. She was being shaken around like an old rag doll, Kento still had her over his shoulder. "Do you... mind?" her face had turned faintly greenish in color.

"Oh... heh..." he said and sat her down.

"Kento... c'mon..." Mia said. "Now, this is the time to be serious. We have to figure out a way to enter into Zagoto's castle. Clearly," Mia continued, "all of the previous entrances have been blocked off and heavily guarded in case one of us would try to break through. Which IS impossible."

"Yeah..." Sekhmet said, thoughtfully, "But, what if there was one secret entrance that Zagoto himself didn't even know of? That may still be open for us to go through."

"If there is, then you guys would be the ones to know about it." Ryo pointed out.

"Yes, but there were soo many entrances into the castle itself that I didn't even know them all," Cale said. "And Tapla made the passageways and such soo confusing that, unless you knew where you were going, that you'd get lost and get stuck in there..."

"Well, there's obviously one place that we've overlooked. There HAS to be a way into the castle. Because how else are the warriors able to enter and exit the castle?" Rowen added.

"Right," Kayura agreed. "But we've searched all over. And even since Dais, Cale, Sekhmet, and I have been here, we haven't been able to detect where they're coming from. It's like... he's hidden it. With... magic or something..." she said thoughtfully.

"Well, what are we doing, just sitting around here doing nothing?" Jessica said standing up. "If we want to find this entrance, then we have to get up and look for it ourselves!!"

"Yeah..." the others agreed and stood up, also.

The group quickly packed up and started off towards the valley below. Dais, Cale, Sekhmet, and Kayura led the way in the direction of Zagoto's castle, since they knew it so well.

"Don't ya think... that... if you were going to hide an entrance to your castle, where would you hide it at?" Cye said, looking around thoughtfully.

"That's a good idea," Kayura praised. "But the thing is, is that we're not Zagoto and we definitely DO NOT think like him. So... how to find the entrance..."

Suddenly, in the clearing up ahead, there was a rustling sound and the spot seemed to vibrate and waver, much like a mirage on a hot day. "Wha... what IS that?" They exclaimed, jumping back and getting into battle stances.

At last, a figure emerged from the porthole-like thing. Jessica gasped.

Ryo groaned. "I thought you said no more suprises..."

* * *

[Part IV][1]

   [1]: jes_chap4.htm



	5. Default Chapter Title

**.:Legacy of the Wind:.  
PART FOUR: **Where there Was Darkness, Let There Be Light**  
** By: Hoshi-chan

"I - I know. B-but... how can I promise such a thing when it suprises even ME?" she said wearily. The figure drew closer to them as the others prepared to battle.

"Jessica... Ronins... I have but a message for you..." the figure said. It was a woman, dressed in a long, black hooded cloak with startling deep blue eyes and long, shimmering blonde hair that complimented her eyes. She turned to Jessica. "Do you not remember me, Jessica?"

"Y-yes..." she stuttered. "W-Whitney... I thought..."

Whitney just smiled. "No, I didn't and I'm obviously not dead. I'm very alive, as you can see. And still as much against Zagoto as I ever was or have been... I have come to you to relay to you good news. I think that I have discovered an area where the warriors enter and exit the castle from. I... noticed that you have been searching for the entrance...."

"Y-you have?" they exclaimed.

"Yes, I have."

"Wait..... how do we know that we can trust you, that you are who you say you are?" Sekhmet cautiously said to Whitney.

"You don't. And I don't blame you for not trusting me just yet. I know that if I were you, that I wouldn't trust me, either. But it is your only choice. If you want to find the entrance....." she trailed off.

"Why don't.... half of us go with Whitney, and the other half stay here or close behind. In case this is a trap...." Mia suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea," Kayura approved as they turned to Whitney. Jessica could tell that the others didn't fully trust Whitney just yet. And she didn't blame them at all. Whitney just appeared out of nowhere in this evil place claiming to know something that they've been trying to figure out for quite awhile now.

"Alright, then," Ryo said, "Sage, Rowen, and I will go with Whitney, the rest follow behind in case this is a trap or something. Just in case we run into... trouble."

Whitney looked at Ryo with a solemn expression on her face. "I do not blame you for not trusting me, Ryo. I know that if you appeared out of nowhere I wouldn't fully trust you, either. But I do trust you and I am asking you if you would please trust me. I know of the evil of Zagoto and I know his powers... and trust me they are very extreme. I fear him. I fear him because he is so much stronger than I."

"Yeah. I can't fully trust you yet Whitney, but I trust you enough for the moment to trust you that you aren't leading us into a trap." Ryo said.

The others nodded. "Alright," Cye agreed as Whitney turned to Ryo.

"We must be going now," she told him. "I think that the entrance is somewhere near a body of water. There are more than one entrance though, and I think that I have found only one."

"Yes, well, lets go. We have no time to waste." Rowen said. "Whitney, lead the way."

"Yes," Sage said as the four started off down the road as the sky overhead turned dark and the stars appeared one by one and lit up the night sky.

Jessica, Cye, Kento, and the others followed closely behind Ryo, Sage, Rowen, and Whitney.

"I think that she's just leading us into a trap," Sekhmet whispered to Dais. He showed his disapproval.

"I don't know," Dais responded, "but we won't know until we find out. It's..... a chance that we'll have to take."

"Yes, I agree," Cale said to the two. "If it IS a trap, then it's a trap." Cale smirked. "But nothing I - I mean, WE can't handle..."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Oh, sure. Now. stop paying attention to your ego -"

"WHAT ego?" Kento whispered silently to Dais, who snickered quietly.

"-when you SHOULD be paying attention to Ryo, Rowen, and Sage up ahead!!" she continued as she finished scolding Cale.

"Wha - oh, right." Cale said as the four up ahead turned into the woods abrubtly.

"Ack! She's leading them into the woods! At night! And we're in the NETHERworld! She's gonna kill them! This is a trap for SURE!" Kento cried.

"KENTO! Stop!" Jessica smacked him on his head.

"Where - where'd they go?" Kayura said, peering into the darkness of the woods illuminated only by the starlight.

"Up here, I think..." Mia said, pointing towards some branches near a path that led into the woods. The branches were swaying as if someone had recently just brushed up against them.

"How do we know it's not just the breeze?" Cye inquired.

Jessica looked at Cye with a skeptical look on her face. "Does it look like there's a breeze? Do you even FEEL a breeze? C'mon, Cye..."

Cye looked down. "Yeah, well..."

"Well, we've surely got nothing to loose..." Kento said and started into the woods.

"Oh, yeah. Nothing to you may be everything! Earth, the Netherworld, our armors, the sake of mankind, US. But, yeah, it's nothing." Cale muttered as he followed after Kento into the woods. The others followed close behind Kento and Cale, straining to see anything as it was almost pitch-black in the shelter of the woods beneath the trees. Kento pushed his way through the woods on a path that he thought Ryo and the others were on.

When they were a little ways into the woods, Kento stopped. "I don't know why we haven't reached them yet....... or the lake that Whitney was talking about."

"See?" Sekhmet shouted, pounding his fist into his palm. "I told you this was a trap. We've probably been out here walking around in circles while Ryo and the others are in danger or in need of our help!"

"Sekhmet! Calm down! We aren't lost... and if they were in danger, we would have heard or seen something along the way. We aren't going around in circles... just calm down!!" Dais told him.

Suddenly, Jessica got this weird feeling. Her head snapped up, unnoticed by the rest of the group. 'Th - the guys...... they're... nearby?' she thought to herself, concentrating hard on their location of the four. She squeezed her eyes shut in concentration. 'It seemed to be coming from over...' Jessica opened her eyes and turned to look at a large group of trees. "There," she said, raising her hand and pointing towards the group of trees.

The group stopped talking and looked at her. "What?" asked Cye.

"Ryo, Rowen, Sage, Whitney... they're... over there." she said once again.

"Are you... sure?" Cale asked, staring at her in the dark.

"Y-yes... I'm pretty sure. It's just - this feeling I got..." she trailed off.

"Well, it can't hurt to try it out, guys," Mia suggested. The rest nodded.

"Yeah, and it's not like I've exactly been leading us in the right direction. Two idiots in the group couldn't hurt..." Kento grinned.

Jessica just smiled. "Well? C'mon, guys!"

"Alright... alright... We're coming! We're coming..." Kento mumbled as he followed Jessica through the group of trees.

They walked for a minute or two before happening upon a small lake surrounded by trees and almost completely hidden from the road. "Why didn't we see this before?" Cye wondered out loud.

"Hmmmmm....." Kento sat down on a nearby rock. "So..... we're here. But where are they?"

"I hope...... I hope they didn't get captured........" Dais trailed off.

"And if they did, then it's all my fault......" Kento said sadly.

Jessica turned to look at Magic sitting on the ground next to her, his ears twitching. "M-Magic? What is it? Do you..... hear something?"

Magic looked up at her and twitched his tail. He meowed at her softly as if to say yes. Suddenly, the group heard footsteps coming their way through the woods in the direction that Magic was looking in. Kento jumped up from his place on the rock and the group turned to face the woods. The leaves started to rustle and Jessica bent down and grabbed Magic, hugging him to her as Ryo, Sage, Rowen and Whitney emerged. They all let out a sigh of relief.

Jessica bent back down and set Magic on the ground as the four walked up to them.

"Hey...." Kento said, "Weren't WE supposed to be following YOU?"

"Yeah," Ryo said, dmiling slightly, "We had some.... minor setbacks..... getting back here."

"What do you mean, 'back here'?" Mia asked.

"The welcoming party wasn't exactly happy to see us. We were here but the warriors, like, rose from the lake and attacked us, driving us back out into the woods." Rowen exclaimed.

"So.... what you're saying is...... is that you think that Whitney may be right? That we may have found one of the entrances into Zagoto's castle?" Mia asked excitedly.

"Yeah," Sage responded. "But - it's underwater and I don't know how we'll be able to get you two through it. We can because we use our armors. But..... you two....." he said to Jessica and Mia.

"How about I go down there and check it out?" asked Cye, putting on his armor.

"Alright, buddy, that's a good idea," Kento said as Cye dived into the lake. The group closely watched the surface of the lake for any sign or Cye or trouble. Five minutes went by... then ten... then fifteen... when finally twenty minutes had gone by before Cye finally resurfaced.

"There's definitely something down there," he reported to them, treading in the middle of the lake.

"Really?" exclaimed Sage.

"No, I just said that there was something down there. YES! But theres a huge rock blocking what looks like a possible entrance to the castle. But I couldn't move it. I need help." he said, swimming in the center of the lake.

"Alright then, you guys can go. I'll stay here with Mia and Jessica in case the warriors come back," Sekhmet said as the others called to their arms and dove into the lake.

Sekhmet stood there looking at Whitney. He still did not trust her at all. But how? Why? 'What is this feeling I have?' Sekhmet asked himself.

Right then, Whitney turned to them. "I must be going now. I have helped you enough. Farewell and good luck, Samuari Troopers...." she said and gently faded back into the portal she came in.

Sekhmet stared at the spot where she just was, a scowl on his face. "I should have known that she would lead us out into the middle of nowhere and abandon us here. Why didn't I see it before?" Sekhmet growled.

"No, but even if this is a trap, we can get out of it," Jessica smiled at Sekhmet. "C'mon and cheer up and get rid of that bad attitude that you've had ever since we've arrived here."

Sekhmet opened his mouth as if to say something but decided not to and quickly shut it again.

"Hey.... Magic?" Jessica said, looking over at Magic who was peering out at the surface of the lake. Mia, Jessica, and Sekhmet turned to look out on the lake's surface as ripples broke out and bubbles broke surface. The ripples got larger and larger still until all eight jumped out from the bottom of the lake. Water streamed down their faces and off their armor as they removed their helmets. Ryo shook his hair, shaking the water off of it.

"We've moved the boulder out of the way, so now we can go in to the castle through it," Dais reported.

"Yeah, but what about Mia, Jessica, and Magic?" Rowen asked.

"I.... I don't know. But I'm willing to go......" Jessica said bravely, hugging Magic. Magic meowed and looked up sadly at Jessica. 'What are you doing? You wouldn't possibly make it.........'

Jessica sat Magic down as she stepped into the lake's cold water. She waded in up to her waist and turned to the others. "W-well, are you c-coming, or n-not....." she said, her teeth chattering.

"Jessica..." Cale started to protest.

"No, Cale," Dais held out his hand to block Cale as he started to walk towards Jessica in the of the lake. "Let her be. This is her choice, not ours and we shouldn't make it for her." Cale stopped and the rest put their helmets back on and waded out to Jessica in the lake. Jessica reached out and held onto Ryo's shoulders as they swam out to the very center of the lake where it was very deep.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ryo asked her quietly. She nodded, chattering all the while. "Alright, then, when I say go, take a deep breath and hold it for as long as you can, ok?" Ryo said over his shoulder. Jessica once again silently nodded. "Ok, then, ready... go!"

Jessica gulped in a huge breath of precious air as the water closed in around her head. She gasped at the shock at the extreme coldness of the water. The group swam deeper and deeper into the lake. Jessica watched as the lake's surface grew farther and farther away. 'This isn't so bad,' she thought, 'Just as long as I can hold out until we get to more air......'

But that became more difficult the deeper they swam as the pressure from the water pushed against her chest, making it harder for her to hold her breath. All she could still see below her was black darkness.

Slowly, out of the darkness, she could see something. Very faint at first. Her lungs were burning for fresh oxygen as she struggled to hold her breath as long as she could. The object below her grew larger and larger still until she could make out the outline of an entrance...... the entrance to the castle! Her lungs were burning now as she wanted so badly to open her mouth and breathe, but she knew that if she did that, she would surely drown because she was too far below the surface.

She started to pound on Ryo's back as they swam in through the entrance, enveloped by the darkness within. Just as she thought she couldn't hold her breath any longer, she felt their bodies rising towards the surface. 'Surface of what?' she thought. But it didn't matter as she clung onto Ryo's back, resting her head against him as she started to grow faint. She closed her eyes, wishing the pain in her chest and head would go away.

Finally, she felt the coldness of air as she opened her mouth and gulped in air. She felt very faint from having to hold her breath for such a long time. Ryo held onto her, making sure that she didn't faint and go below the surface. "Are you alright?" he asked.

She looked at him and weakly said, "Y-yeah, I think so......." Her heart was still racing and her chest still burned. Ryo continued to look at her. She could clearly tell that he didn't believe her.

"Are you sure? You don't look so hot." he said, concerned.

She nodded slightly and said, "It's just that it was so hard to hold my breath for so long, I thought that I was going to have to..... I don't know. It was scary..... but I made it....." she faked a weak smile at him.

Ryo still didn't look convinced. Cye turned to her and said, "Well, we still have to go underwater a ways, are you sure you can make it Jessica?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I'm going to have to sooner or later, and eventually the air in this small room is going to be used up if we all stay here," she said, realizing that they were in a rectangular space with a tunnel leading up to it on one end and a tunnel leading down on another end, filled with water and just air on the top. It was an enclosed space. She took a deep breath and said, "Alright, let's go. It's now or never........"

She held back onto Ryo's shoulder's as he swam over to the other side of the space, directly above the other tunnel that took them down and through into the castle. "Ready?" he said. "Take a dep breath.... now!" and the two plunged into the icy depths once again.

Jessica thought that she could make it, reassured by Cye that this time it wasn't as long to get to the other side.... to air......

They continued to swim downward. Downward to where?? Jessica didn't have time to concentrate on anything except holding her breath. One false move and she would be a goner...... Still weak from holding her breath for so long before, her lungs started aching for air sooner than they had before, and Jessica started to panic. They were nowhere near air, what was she going to do? 'Oh, no!' she cried. 'Ryo! Ryo! Please get me up to air.... I don't want to do this anymore.... help me! I can't last much longer........'

The group stopped swimming downward and leveled out. They were swimming straight now. They weren't going up, but they weren't swimming down either. But it didn't help Jessica as she wasn't wearing any armor and couldn't breathe underwater like the others could. Finally, Jessica started to get faint again. 'Ryo! Ryo!' she tried to scream. She didn't want to let go of his shoulders, but she knew that if she didn't she would faint anyway..... and be left behind to drown...... It was hopeless...

She released Ryo's shoulders and swam upwards desperately, but only met the wet mossy stone of the wall. The demon standing between her and her life. She opened her mouth and tried to scream..... but nothing came out. She saw Ryo and the others up ahread stop and turn around to look for her. Jessica was clawing at the wall, desperately trying to get to air. 'Help!! Help me!! I can't..... I can't breathe! Get me out of here, please! I don't want to do this anymore.......'

Her world started to fade black as the burning in her lungs went away and she stopped moving. The last thing she saw was a hand reach out from her darkness and grab onto her...... pulling her upward........ upward.........

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Ryo looked back behind him as he realised that Jessica had let go of his shoulders. 'Jessica! Jessica, oh no!' he tried to shout to her. He swam to her as he watched her clawing at the wall, screaming silently in the watery depths, crying for air. Sage swam up next to her just as Ryo reached her and grabbed her shoulder, pulling her up towards the surface. Jessica had stopped moving now, and her body appeared lifeless.

'N-no!' Ryo cried, tears forming in his eyes as he saw her eyes close and her mouth hanging slightly open. Sage neared the surface, the rest of them not too far after. At the surface, Sage quickly pulled her onto the stone floor and laid her down as the others stood around her sadly and saw that she was not breathing.

"Oh, no! Jessica! Jessica, please wake up!" Ryo pleaded.

"Jessica, wake up!" Sage said to her.

"Thi is all my fault........." Ryo said. "If only..... if only I would have told her no. That she couldn't come with us......" he said, tears forming in his eyes.

"Hey, Ryo, it's not your fault," Rowen tried to reassure him. "If you would have told her no, she would have found a way to come anyway. You know that she wouldn't have listened."

"Yeah," Dais said, agreeing with Rowen. "If not one way, then another. Don't blame this on yourself. It couldn't be helped........" he said sadly, looking at Jessica's lifeless body laid out on the ground.

Suddenly, a portal appeared, creating a wavy distortion that Whitney calmly stepped out of. "I sense that there........ is a problem......?" she said cautiously.

Sekhmet stood up and glared at her while shouting, "Yes, we have a problem! It's you and your lies! Why don't you quit lying to us and tell us the truth! I know that you're not what you say you are..... try telling me NOW that you aren't working for Zagoto and led us straight into his trap......."

Whitney looked hurt and taken aback. "W-what.... why, I have no idea......" she said quietly, almost in tears.

Sage glared up at Sekhmet from his place on the ground next to Jessica. "Sekhmet, we have no time for this!! We need help. Jessica may be dying and we still have to bring Mia and Magic here! And if Jessica couldn't make it, how are those two?? Just stop!" he scolded as Whitney faded and appeared next to Jessica.

Whitney placed both hands slightly above her stomach and chanted some ancient, foreign words. Jessica's entire body began to glow with a golden light. The light faded away as Whitney removed her hands and turned to face the group.

Jessica moaned and rolled slightly to her side where she coughed up all the water. She then sat up, looked at the group, then buried her face in her hands and started to cry. Rowen hugged her. "Hey! What's the matter? You're ok now...."

"It's just....... I...... and...... it was just horrible! Don't.... please don't make me do that again...... Don't do that to Mia, or...... or Magic or anybody..... it was hell......" she cried into his shoulder.

"It's ok.... you're ok now and you won't have to go through that again," he promised.

Jessica looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "But..... how am I going to get out of here now?"

Ryo looked thoughtful. "Maybe.... maybe there's another way in here. I mean, there HAS to be. But, I'm talking about one that we know of....... There was an entrance underwater..... so there HAS to be one on land somewhere, too."

"Wait, I'll be back....." Whitney said as she disappeared back through her portal.

"She has a tendacy to do that...... and it's bugging the heck out of me......." Sekhmet growled.

Whitney reappeared a few seconds later with Mia and Magic, both safe and sound. Now Dais was the one who got angry with her. "Why couldn't you have done that with Jessica?" he shouted at her.

Whitney just stared and blinked at him. "I...... I do not know...... If my help is not appreciated......" Whitney said as she started to fade back into her portal.

"No!" Ryo shouted to her. "We DO appreciate it........ it's just....... your timing. It's a little off. And you seem so...... I don't know. Absent-minded?"

Whitney looked down at the ground sadly. "I..... wish I could tell you......." she said, fading away as she looked up at the group without even so much as a solitary good-bye.

"Fine then, bye." Kento said.

Cale stood up. "Forget about her. We have much MUCH more important things to do and worry about."

"Yeah," Ryo agreed, looking down the tunnel that was adjacent to the small room that they were in. The tunnel that supposedly led them farther into Zagoto's castle. "Do you thing that he's really here? DO you think that...... he knows we're here........" Ryo trailed off.

Jessica looked up at them from her place on the floor. 'Why does Whitney seem so familier? As if..... I know her somehow.......' Jessica stood up with aid from Mia as Rowen let go of her and stood up also. Jessica stood there for a moment with Mia, trying not to get dizzy. Jessica closed her eyes and swallowed hard. 'I've got to do this.......... I have to go on. I can't give up now!' she thought as she opened her eyes and stared down the cold, dark passageway. She started walking towards it.

Letting go of Mia's arm, Jessica turned to face the guys. "I'm ready to go," she said bravely, "if you are."

"Alright then, what are we waiting for? Let's rock and roll!!" Kento exclaimed, throwing his fists into the air. "Let's go kick some...... ehhh........... Zagoto butt??" he said, bringing down his fists and tried to think of something to call Zagoto. The others laughed.

"Well, it's good we still have some humor here," Mia said, "despite the atmosphere!"

Cye laughed. "Yeah, Kento can take the tension off of anything!"

After the laughter died down, Ryo turned back to the others. "Alright now. We have no clue of what we're going to find around the bend. Up ahead. We have no idea of what we're going to find at all. We can't just charge in there without a plan!! We have to scope out whats up ahead. To see if there'll be a big ambush or whatever."

"Why don't we just go in there and pound 'em? You know we'd win!!" Kento said rather self-assured.

"Oh, yeah, and get the crap beat out of us? Kento! Do you realise that if we do that, we'll be on a death mission? That would be like commiting suicide! Remember, we are IN Zagoto's castle now and there will probably be more warriors here than we have seen altogether!!" Sage scolded.

"Always the one to rain on my parade..." Kento grumbled under his breath. Raising his voice a little, he looked at Sage and said, "Hmph, well, you don't gotta jump my back for having some spirit." he pouted.

"This is not a time to joke and play! Do I always have to be the serious one and remind you of what dangers lie ahead? Kento! This isn't some great adventure. And, to tell you the truth, we AREN'T invincible. We can very well get hurt, even more so your friends over here who don't even have armor or protection or anything to begin with!! They'd surely be killed! This battle is VERY real......" Kayura said.

Kento looked down at the ground. "Sorry...... but why sit around here all day waiting for for them, searching for them, waiting for something to happen when they could know where we are and attack us at any time." he pointed out, looking back up. Ryo sighed.

"Well, Kento, since you want to soo badly, I might as well let you know. What were we just about to do right before you opened your big, complaining mouth?"

"W-well........"

"That's what I thought. Now, let's go." The group followed Ryo as he entered into the dark tunnel. Ryo led the way through the twisting paths until he came upon a brightly lit room. It suprised the group, since all they've seen since they surfaced were lighted torches aligning the walls.

Ryo held his hand out for them to stop as he slowly peered around the corner slowly. "Whoa, you guys, there's a whole BUNCH of them in there.........."

"Can you give us an idea?" Sage asked. Ryo slowly peered around the corner once again.

"I..... I don't know...... there's more than I've ever seen....... I don't know how we're going to be able to get through them....." he said, studying the crowd.

One by one the group looked around the corner and gasped at the large number of warriors that they stared at. "My God........" Jessica breathed at the sight of their large number.

"And that doesn't look like those weak warriors that we met that one day out in the valley or wherever," Kento observed. "These guys look a LOT tougher......"

"So what are we supposed to do?" Cale asked Ryo as the group moved a little farther away from the doorway so as not to be seen and ambushed. "We have to get through them, or else what was the point of coming this far, almost risking Jessica's life......" he trailed off.

"I know, I know. We have to attack. But everyone must remember that, fight your best. And whatever happens, happens."

"Yeah......" Kento said quietly.

"There's just too many of them!" Ryo said, peeking around the corner of the castle's stone wall. "But - we must go through......"

"I'm willing to fight if you are," Jessica said bravely, bending down to pick up Magic, stroking his fur. She set him down as Rowen said, "Well, ready when you are........"

Jessica curled her hands around her daggers hanging at her waist. She kissed Magic as soon as Ryo yelled, "To Arms!! Armor of Wildfire........." and the others soon followed. Then, all nine armors standing there, Jessica felt magnificent, almost invincible. "Stay here," she whispered to Magic right before the ten charged into the mass of Zagoto's warriors.

Jessica ran into the crowd, immeaditely striking one of the stunned warriors while dodging arrows and swords. All around you could hear swords clashing together. Jessica was quick on her feet and was able to dodge twice as many attacks than the Ronin Warriors and Warlords. But without the protection of the armor, any blow could be fatal, and she had no protection.

Jessica pushed her dagger into another nearby warrior's gut and looked around to see Rowen and a warrior hand to hand. Then, noticing something move towards her from the corner of her eye, she swung around, swinging her dagger as she did so and bringing it across the warrior's chest.

Ryo, with his katanas, had no problem expertly clearing out the swarms of warriors that surrounded him. He held his katanas up to block an attack from a warrior in front of him as another came up from behind and stuck it's sword into his side. Ryo screamed with pain inside, but his expression stayed the same as he lost his grip on blocking the warrior in front of him. The warrior withdrew his sword from his side, twisting it as he did so and making Ryo scream out loud in pain.

Kento and Sage, who were fighting side by side, heard his scream. "Ryo!" they both exclaimed and jumped, causing the warriors charging at them from either side to run into each other, their swords in each other's gut. Sage ran to Ryo and sliced the warrior on his back with his sword as Kento hit the one ontop into submission. They both helped him up. "Ryo!" Sage exclaimed.

"I-I'm ok, guys," he said, trying not to show any pain, but it was clearly written all over his face, and in his eyes. Blood poured from his wound as Sage said, "Kento, stay here with him. Get him to a safe spot." Sage ran off into the battle, striking warriors along his way.

Jessica kept dodging their attacks expertly, but she was barely getting any hits on them. She glanced up in time to see a sword go across Sage's shoulder. "No! Sage!" she cried. Then she turned back to the battle with a renewed hatred for the warriors, as if she didn't have any in the first place. She let all of her anger for the warriors out through her daggers as she jumped high into the air and came back down, shoving her daggers into the back of their necks. She withdrew them, then turned to the others. "Who's next?" she asked and when noone answered, she shrugged and said, "Guess I'll have to choose all on my own, then!" and she flipped around, kicking them in their heads and knocking them down onto the ground.

She ducked to dodge an attack from a warrior and threw out her leg, kicking the warrior in its shin and knocking it down. Once down, she shoved her dagger into its chest. She stood up and turned around, not a moment too late as three warriors charged at her. She jumped, then landed behind them as the confused warriors stopped abruptly, and turned to face the cold metal of Jessica's daggers. Jessica turned her head but was too late as a warrior charging towards her struck her, his sword shoved into her upper thigh. Jessica's eyes grew large and her mouth flew open, but no sound came out. She grabbed her leg and stumbled backwards as the warrior withdrew the sword.

Cale and Sekhmet ran up to her, Sekhmet knocking the warrior out of their way as Cale bent down to help Jessica up.

"My - my leg!! I - I can't feel my leg!!" she exclaimed in shock. She looked down to see blood rushing down her leg, coating her leg with crimson blood.

Cale picked her up and carried her to a safe spot. He set her down and said, "I can not stay with you, Jessica. I must return back to the battle and help the others."

"N-no!! Please, don't........" she cried to Cale as he walked away and disappeared. Magic ran up to Jessica and laid his head in her lap.

Rowen was shooting out arrow after arrow at the troops, but it only fazed them. He drew back his arrow, gained energy, and released it while saying, "Arrow Shock Wave!!" It shot clear through a line or warriors. "Use your special moves, guys!" Rowen yelled to the others while punching a warrior in the side of the head and blocking another's attack on him.

Cye, in the midst of battle, yelled to Kento, "I can't! They've got me pinned down!! I - I can't use my arms!"

"Hang on buddy!" Kento cried as he ran to help Cye and twirling his naginata above his head. He yelled, "Iron Rock Crusher!!" and slammed down his naginata, demolishing the whole swarm of the surrounding Cye. Cye was then able to swing around and knock off the warriors who were clawing at his back. With a punch to each, they were down.

Cye turned around to survey the scene. The warlords looked pretty bad, but seemed ok for the time being, Ryo was seriously hurt, and......... Jessica? "Jessica!" Cye screamed. "Kento! Do you see Jessica anywhere?" he said, looking around frantically while trying to keep his guard and he landed a blow into one's chest.

Kento looked around alarmingly before replying, "N-no!! I - I don't see her anywhere!! I.... I hope that she's not........" he said and inhaled deeply. 'Oh, no! She can't possibly be........' he said and immeaditely pushed the thought from his mind. 'Of course she's not. C'mon, this is JESSICA I'm talking about...... she's not about to go down THAT easily......' he said and returned his mind to the battle.

While looking for Jessica, warriors ran up behind the two and stuck their swords into them - one into Cye's arm and the other almost through Kento's gut. They screamed out in pain as they sank to the floor.

Kayura was thrown back hard against the cold stone castle wall. She fell to the ground then shakingly stood back up. "I - I won't...... stand for this.........." she said, gasping for breath for the blow had knocked the wind out of her. The warrior charged for her.

Kayura jumped a little off of the ground and stuck her sword into his neck, and he slowly fell to the ground. Kayura looked around. Something was not right, she was still suspended above in the air. She had never landed from her jump......... Her hands curled around the handle of the sword that stuck out of her stomach that went clear through into the wall, suspending her above ground. Yet there was no pain. Kayura gulped and slowly closed her eyes. This was it..... this was the end.......

As soon as she was about to shut her eyes completely, she saw a bright shining light come out from the dark. Kayura jerked her head up and looked towards the light. 'What is it?' she said, straining to see. But her vision was becoming blurred...... she felt her warm blood run down her legs and drip onto the floor below her. The figure emerged from the darkness. "J-Jessica........." she whispered. She could not keep her eyes open any longer as they fluttered softly closed. "I - I'm s...sorry, my...... friends......." she whispered before she went limp, hanging from the wall.

Jessica painfully limped into the battle scene, holding a bright, glowing ball of light in her palms. She winced as pain shot like lightning up her leg. Her whole body seemed to ache with the pain. She stumbeled, almost falling to the ground, but caught herself and stood back up. She looked up and her eyes rested on Kayura..... 'Oh, noooo' Jessica cried in her head. 'I'm..... I'm so sorry, Kayura, my dear, dear friend........' Jessica closed her eyes painfully as tears streamed down her face for her beloved friend. She flashed her eyes open and got a grim expression set on her face. This had to stop once and for all.

She continued to limp into the battle scene, unnoticed by the warriors or the Ronin Warriors and Warlords. She looked down at the glowing ball of light resting in her palms and whispered, "This is for my friends....." She then threw her hands above her head and wind swirled all around, fanning her hair out around her body. She yelled, "Flare to fire, night to day!! You've hurt my friends, now double you'll pay!" The ball of light grew until it swallowed the entire room, washing over everybody. The light was so bright, you had to shield your eyes, but all around, you could hear the warriors screaming out in ultimate pain.

When the light cleared, Kayura fell in a heap to the floor, hitting her head on the hard stones. Ryo stared down at his legs. He watched them magically heal themselves and there was not even a trace of his wound left. He stood up and walked over to the other guys.

"Wha - what was that?" He said. All the others inspected their arms in legs in amazement. "Our wounds........ they're healed! What was that light, where did it come from?"

Only then did the ground notice Jessica standing still, her arms above her head, breathing heavily. She then fell to the floor, too weak to stand anymore, and the pain was just too much. Too much........ Her power could only save outside mortals, excluding herself. All of her wounds were still there...... and very real.........

Everyone ran over to where Jessica lay on the ground, her hair fanned out around her body, her eyes softly closed. "J - Jessica!" Sage exclaimed. "Jessica! Wake up!"

Kayura lay on the floor unnoticed by the group until Dais looked around. "Kayura? Kayura! Where's Kayura!" he said, and Dais, Cale, and Sekhmet started looking frantically around. Rowen spotted her laying lifelessly on the floor.

"Oh, nooo! Nooooo!" Dais cried as the three Warlords ran over to her body. Dais rolled her over as he kneeled next to her on the floor. "She's...... she's still breathing!" he cried as he hugged her. The three cried tears of happiness that she was not lost. Cale noticed the sword sticking into the wall, covered in warm blood and the puddle directly beneath.

"Was that...... oh, no...." Sekhmet said, noticing the sword also. "B-but, she's alright. There aren't any marks on her at all!"

"Amazing......" Dais sais and gently picked her up and carried her over to where the rest of the group was. "She's..... alive..... " he said happily but confused.

"Jessica! Jessica!! Please wake up, Jessica!" Rowen said, shaking her gently. But her eyes still remained closed. "We can't loose you...... please wake up! Please!!" he cried.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

_What...... where am I? Am I dreaming? Oh, no....... Rowen..... Ryo, Sage......Sekhmet, Kayura...... Kento, Cale, Dais!! Oh.... Magic!! I'm sorry you guys....... I just can't..... I just can't wake up...... I want to so badly.... oh, why can't I wake up??_

Jessica struggled to open her eyes, but it was like she was fighting a desperate battle..... one that she seemed sure to loose. 

_Rowen...... I hear you. I'm trying, Rowen, trying sooo hard...... but I just..... can't......_

'Oh, why can't I open my eyes?' Jessica started to cry.

"What?" Sage said, looking down at Jessica. "Look........ her eyes...... she's crying! She's going to be ok!" he cried.

_Oh, please, why don't you hear me? Help me! I want to wake up so badly...... but I'm so tired...... so very tired....... what is wrong with me? Where am I......._

Rowen picked Jessica up and the group started walking, Rowen carrying Jessica and Dais carrying Kayura.

_Am I floating? What is this feeling.....? It's just.... it's like I'm......... I can't...... oh, why can't I?? Please, no more fighting..... let me sleep...... please, sleep...... it's so peaceful here......_

"So, do you see any safe spots to rest for awhile?" Cye said, looking around.

"I don't know...... what about over there?" Kento suggested, pointing to a fark, hidden area that they all may have very well overlooked. "We need a place to put Jessica and Kayura and Mia so the warriors will not find them..."

"Yes." Ryo agreed. "We can't risk getting them hurt... again... Jessica's legs, though. They're hurt so badly..."

"Yeah... but she risked her life to save us all. Eventhough she was in soo much pain and it hurt her so much..." Sage said sadly.

"That's how she is," Cale informed them. "She's not going to give up. If there's only one way out a situation, and the price is her life, she'll do it without thinking twice. She'll do anything to save her friends..... anything at all at any cost whatsoever."

Sekhmet half laughed. "And that's what gets her into so much trouble. She's a great and loyal friend, she'll never let you down, but sometimes she'll be so blinded by anger and the fact that her friends are in danger that she'll do stupid things... but that's just how she is. You... have to understand that. Let her do what she has to do."

"How's Kayura?" Mia asked from the back of the group.

"It looks as if she'll wake soon," Dais informed her.

"That's good," Mia said happily. "And Jessica?"

"Still no sign of life... I mean, I know she's there... alive and all but in a way she isn't..." Rowen sadly replied.

_I know... sleep... sweet sleep... please oh please just let me sleep..._

* * *

[Part V][1]

   [1]: jes_chap5.htm



	6. Default Chapter Title

**.:Legacy of the Wind:.  
PART SIX: A TRIP TO THE PAST  
** By: Hoshi-chan

Zagoto turned impatiently around in his chair and turned to face Whitney. "What is taking Racimus soo long to return? He should have come back hour ago with the pleasant news of the Ronin's defeat..."

"Yes, Master, would you like me to go see what the results of the battle were? And I could... help him out if he is in need of assistance." Whitney offered.

Zagoto smiled wickedly at Whitney. "Yes, that would be nice... very nice... and while you're at it... nevermind. Go to the battlescene and report back to me with what has happened."

"Yes, master," Whitney bowed then transported out of the room.

"Hmmm that girl... Jessica... she worries me. She has something that she has yet to reveal..." Zagoto said thoughtfully, tapping his chin with his finger as she turned back around to look out his window upon the huge valley below. "There's something about her, that girl, that reminds me of something soo long ago......" he said as memories of that last battle filled his head. The scene with that one lone, solitary girl and the armor... so powerful... Zagoto shook his head as he remembered how she was soo easy to defeat. "But then... it just disappeared..." he whispered, wondering where the power had gone to...

Zagoto turned back around as Whitney rentered back into the room. "Master," she said rather timidly.

"Yes....?" Zagoto said, sensing that something was not right. When she still did not respond, he started to grow impatient. "Well??"

"Well, master, things did not go according to plans..." she said, looking down.

Zagoto did not like the sound of that. "WHAT do you mean..." he growled menacingly, standing up from his chair angrily.

Whitney looked up at him fearfully. "Ra-Racimus was...... defeated..... and when I got there, there was no sign of the Ronins........ anywhere...... and there were dead warriors all around.......

"WHAT?" he screamed. "How could this have happened?? It was just not possible!! I sent him out for something simple, easy, and he failed!! Those Ronin rats were already weak when I gave him this mission!! Do I have to go out there and kill them myself, one by one??" he shouted, his voice echoing off of the castle walls.

"W-well..." Whitney explained, "If it helps any, master, I found two of the Ronins... they were dead in the midst of the battle. So now we are only down to seven..." she said, cautiously looking up at him hoping to improve his mood some.

Zagoto grew frusterated and pounded his fist on his table, crushing it to pieces. "How can this BE?" he said, more to himself than to Whitney. "N-no... we've got to come up with a better plan... those Ronins are ruining everything.... ever since they arrived here they've been NOTHING but trouble... we have to get rid of them, once and for all..." Zagoto said, starting to grin evilly.

Whitney looked at him with a confused look on her face. She didn't like the evil grin on his face. It spelled trouble with a capital T. "W-what do you plan to do, master?"

Zagoto just looked at her with the same, menacing grin. "I think it's time to call in the rat exterminator..."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Rowen ran up ahead of the group and peered around the corner, to make sure that the path was clear. They couldn't take any chances with getting into a battle now. He waved his hand, holding Magic in the other, and waved the group over to him. "D-do you see what I see?" he whispered to them.

"Y-yes!! It looks like... a bridge... and a..." Mia squinted to see. "A castle? Another castle in the distance?"

"No.... it's a mirage. An illusion..." Cale told the rest of the group. "With my many years with Dais, I have learned to look out for these things. It's just a trap to lead us into Zagoto's merciless claws. If we check that out, we'd be led into a trap for sure."

"H-how do you know that?" Cye said.

"I just do..." Cale said quietly. 'Oh, Dais...' he said silently in his head.

Just then Whitney appeared once again. "W-Whitney!" Mia said suprisingly.

"Yes, I have come to tell you some startling news. There is another castle that Zagoto inhabits. He is not in Talpa's old one... Zagoto foreshadowed that you would go there first thing. His new castle is hidden somewhere..... it will be even more difficult to find than Talpa's was....." she said. "I am very sorry to hear about Dais and Sekhmet.... even if we didn't get along too awfully well, if was such a shame."

"Yes," Rowen said.

"Do you have any clue as to where his castle is?" Mia asked.

"Unfortunately, no I do not. But it is extremely well hidden and I am totally clueless as to where it may be...." Whitney trailed off and looked up sadly at the group.

"Well, if we could find the entrance to Talpa's old castle, then we can find the entrance to Zagoto's!" Kento said.

"Yeah, but why were we led into Talpa's castle, though? It just doesn't make any sense. All clues led to there..... that he would be in that castle and all we found was a bunch of nothing."

"Well, the warriors weren't exactly nothing," Kento said.

Sage glared at Kento. "No, but he means clues leading to Zagoto's wherabouts."

"Oh."

"But I have come to tell you that Jessica may be able to detect his power source somewhere. Since she is part sorceress I think that she may have a power which enables her to detect power levels from miles away. Almost pin-point it..." Whitney continued.

"Do you really think... that... Jessica can really do that?" Mia asked.

"It's possible. I've known sorceresses which could do so."

"Alright. But she's out cold right now. We can't get into a battle right now.... we can't risk it. We'd almost be signing our death warrants. With Jessica unconscious.... and our energy is restored. But after the fight that we just fought, I don't know if we could go into another one like it..." Ryo said, looking out over the clearing ahead.

"I just thought that I'd let you know that bit of information about Zagoto and his wherabouts. Sorry that I can't help you any further... but I must be going now... good-bye and good luck, my friends..." Whitney said as she faded back through her portal. On her way out, she thought softly to herself, 'Why does he do this to them? I wish he didn't have control over me... I would be able to help them more...'

Cale watched as Whitney disappeared back through her portal. "I don't know about her," he said, kicking loose dirt laying on the ground. "I mean, we don't know a thing about her. She could be working for Zagoto."

"I don't really trust her much, either. But we've got to. Even if it is a trap, it may lead us to Zagoto so we can get to the root of the problem." Cye reasoned.

"But Cale's right. I do think that she's working for Zagoto. Why else would she just pop up in the middle of nowhere and tell us where things are that we've been looking for for quite awhile? Like the entrance for the castle," Rowen butted in.

Ryo just stared across the clearing with a cold expression on his face. In his mind he played the previous battle over and over again in his head. He watched as Kento fell down after getting hit, then Jessica walk up to Racimus. Her necklace started to glow. 'Her necklace...... that must be it.' he thought. 'It holds the Armor of Wind's transformation orb. But, how to get it out?'

Kento shifted his weight from one foot to another as he still held onto Jessica. Magic was still in Rowen's arms as Sage suggested that they find a place to settle down for the night.

"That's not a bad idea," Kayura agreed as the group headed for a group of trees that wasn't too far away. They decided not to make a fire when they got there, and Mia spread out a blanket on which Jessica and Magic were laid down on. The others sat down, Kento leaning against a tree and Sage sat in the lowest branch. The rest sat down around the base.

"What's out next move?" Rowen said.

"I'm not totally sure, what do you think, Ryo?" Ryo sat with the same expression on his face, as if he was not all with it. Preoccupied. "Ryo?"

Ryo looked up. "Huh? Oh, yeah. I - I don't know either." he mumbled.

"Hey Ryo, are you ok? You don't sound like you're all with it right now. What's up?" Sage asked from his perch in the tree.

"Oh, nothing really. I'm just... thinking. Actually, I'm overtired and I think it's time that I went to sleep." He said, standing up and walking over next to where Jessica was laying. He spread out another blanket and laid down on it, his back to the rest of the group.

"What's with him?" Cale whispered to the others. They just shrugged their shoulders.

"I don't know. He tends to get like this sometimes when something is on his mind... when something is bothering him."

"Yeah," Kento agreed with Mia. "I don't know what could be bothering him now, though."

Sage walked up besides Kento and smacked him on the side of his head. "DUH you idiot. What ELSE do you think that he has to worry about? I mean, we're only in the Netherworld fighting against the most tretcherous villan that we'll probably ever have to face... but I don't think he has too awfully much on his mind right at the moment... ya think?"

Kento looked up as his face flushed red with slight embarassment but mostly anger towards Sage for pointing out his obvious error. "Noooo... it's just that... oh, I don't know. But something definitely IS on his mind... it's not normal for him to be this, how can I put it, quiet? Secluded?"

The others stared at him with a raised eyebrow. "Secluded?"

"Well... awww just forget about it..." he said, standing up and heading to over where Ryo was crashed out on the ground next to Jessica. "I'm going to bed you guys... I'm not even going to TRY to talk anymore..."

"Fine, if that's how you want to be about it... then go ahead..." the others teased. Kento just grunted and laid down next to Ryo on the cold, hard ground.

As the remaining awake found out that Kento and Ryo were fast asleep, with the exception of Jessica who was unconscious for the time being, they continued on with their conversation.

"What do you guys think that we should do then? Do any of you have any suggestions?" Kayura said exhaustedly.

"Well..." the group continued to converse well into the night as the sky overhead changed from the pinks and oranges of evening to the dark blue-blacks of the late night skies. Until the only person who was awake was Ryo himself, who had awakened after a few hours of sleep and after everyone else had fallen restlessly asleep themselves. He himself had actually been awakened by Kento and his famous growling stomach, not to mention his mid-night food cravings which had only made his stomach growl even more, and his inevitable habit of talking out in his sleep. Often of exotic food fantasies.

Ryo sat up and stared up at the sky, wrapping the thin banket around him even tighter. He shivered slightly as a small breeze breeze blew up and whirled around the group, playing with the flames of the small dying fire that the group had evidently made after he had gone to sleep. Hearing noises in Jessica's direction, Ryo turned abruptly in her direction. 'Is she finally awakening?' he thought as he saw the expression on her face change. 'She... she's waking!'

* * * * * * * * * * * *

__

Jessica looked around herself. She was floating... floating in nothing. Floating in mid-air. Suspended above nothing-ness. All around her was empty greyness. Soft grey nothingness surrounded her as the feeling of weightlessness finally took over her body and she continued to float in nothing. She looked around frantically, desperatley looking for some way out of her soft, calm prision of grey. Suddenly, a figure appeared, first blendingin with the soft, dull greyness of the surrounding area around her but became more clear and apparrant as it approached her slowly. Jessica felt as if she knew this person - knew them well...

Jessica squinted her eyes, trying to focus in on the figure. "Who - who are you?" she struggled to spit out. The figure slowly advanced towards Jessica, coming closer and closer. Jessica shivered. 'This feeling I have, I know who they are... how do I get out of here?'

The figure continued to come closer and closer to Jessica and finally stopped directly in front of of her, its face inches from hers but shadowed by what appeared to be a cloak. A hooded cloak? "Why are you here? Where am I? Who - who are you? Please... help me!" she cried out. The figure just nodded and rose its hands towards the skies, if there was a skies in this weird... dimension. The figure abruptly brought its ands down back along its sides as a huge whirlwind started swirling around the figure and when the figure pointed its hands towards Jessica, the huge blast of energy shot forth at Jessica, engulfing her in its silvery fury.

Jessica's hands flew up to her neck as an invisible force surrounded her neck, squeezing slowly every breath from her body. Jessica struggled to free herself from the invisible hands that curled around her neck, but her efforts were useless and just made the hands squeeze tighter around her throat.

"N-no..." she chocked out. Just that little bit of words to say left her panting and struggling for air that just wasn't there... air that was being taken away from her against her will... precious air... Jessica squeezed her eyes shut, still trying to pry the gripping hands from around her neck. Her eyes flew open and she saw herself surrounded by warriors. Still struggling to free herself from the invisible force that wrapped around her neck, squeezing tighter and tighter around her throat, she started to cry. The figure before her threw its hands back up into the air, clearing the whirlwind that engulfed her entire body. The hands around her throat and the warriors seemed to magically disappear. She fell to her hands and knees as she was dropped from whateverf suspemsion that she was in. She immeaditely rose to her feet and jumped to face the figure whom still haunted her.

"Sh... show yourself..." Jessica weakly shouted.

The surrounding greyness suddenly shifted and started to swirl around her. Faster and faster, until pictures of the nine samurai could be seen. The swirling suddenly stopped, leaving a whole picture of the samurai fighting an endless battle. One that was evidently not going to go their way... She watched as the weakened samurai fell one by one as the warriors, in turn, all paid their respects to them by shoing their swords into the backs of the samurai. Until Ryo was the only one still alive. The picture zoomed in on Ryo. Pain was scrawled all over his face as he silently said with his last breath, "I'm sorry Jessica... we just couldn't - couldn't make it..."

Jessica spun around, watching the battle replay over and over, each time focusing in on each o the samurai until Jessica had taken all that she could handle.

"STOP!" she cried with tears in her eyes. "Please stop it! Why are you doin this to me?"

The figure floated silently before her. It bowed its head as the surrounding scene changed from the gruesome battlescene to a picture of Jessica and Zagoto before all nine samurai.

"All of what you have seen,"is of what is yet to happen..."

"No!" she cried.

"Yes, and it all happened because of you. The deaths of your friends, the fate of Earth and the Netherworld... everything happened because of you."

"No! Th-that isn't true!!"

"It most certainly is. It is all your fault. Your friends will continue to die, right before your eyes, and there will not be a thing that you can do about it..." he rasped in a demonly voice that sent chills racing up and down her spine.

"W-what? Why..." she cried. "No! It can not be my fault. It isn't! I can not be so blind to believe someone such as yourself! I would never betray my friends! I would never do such a thing to them!" se said now, very close to tears. "Please, just let me go! Why am I here?"

"It's time for you to face reality, Jessica, and learn the truth. I have seen your future as well as your past. All of your life, you've been all alone and cold... noone to love you... noone to to love or be loved by... Noone loves you and noone ever will. You're too selfish, always thinking of yourself... It is so much better on our side... you get whatever you want and you gain so much power... Come, join with US Jessica, and see how much better it can be!"

"No! How can you say such a thing? I won't stand for it! You're crazy to think that I would join up with you... th-that isn't true..."

"Oh, but it is... how true it really is..." the figure replied as the surrounding scene changed from her and Zagoto to the faces of her friends. Ryo, Kento, Cye, Sage, Rowen, Cale, Dais, Kayura, Sekhmet, Mia, Magic... all surrounded her with hatred in their eyes... towards her. Jessica grabbed her head and fell to her knees, consumed in tears as the faces started to swirl around her, slow at first then faster and faster until finally they all blended together into one swirling motion of color.

"NO! It's not true!! It can't be... I'm... I'm sorry! I'm so very terribly sorry... noo..." she sobbed into her hands.

"And you," the figure sneered, "it is now time for you to see your future. Your life with Zagoto. And your reign over Earth and the netherworld... together with Zagoto. With the combined powers of his powers and your Armor of Wind..." the figure made another swirling motion with his hands as pictures of Jessica and Zagoto replaced the swirling mass of faces. Jessica dared not to look.

"It-it's not true! I would never let my friends down or the fate of this end this way! Never!" Jessica shouted. Anger more than anything lay bottled up inside of her.

"Oh, but it does," the figure pressed.

"NO!" Jessica screamed at the figure. The visions turned back to the soft, familier grey as the figure melted back into disappearance. She was once more all alone. "NO! It's not true! I-I'm not alone! Somebody, please!! Don't leave me alone..." she sobbed, the cold truth hitting her. "N-no... I am alone... I always will be..." she sobbed as the grey faded into black and she closed her eyes, letting sleep and tears, hate and fear take over and consume her body.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Ryo watched Jessica closely as she came nearer to being awakened. He heard her mumble something, but it was so faint that it wasn't clear. Barely audible, Ryo watched her roll over and her mouth moving, words coming out. 'Is she talking to me? Or-or dreaming... or talking to someone else... or just halucinating?' Ryo crawled a bit closer where he could hear her a bit better. When he was seated right next to her, he could make out her saying whole words.

"Somebody... please... please don't leave me alone..." she mumbeled as her expresionless face cried real tears. Ryo sat there, hugging Jessica.

"You aren't alone, Jessica, please wake up! You-You've got to wake up! Please..." he said as he rocked her gently back and forth.

"I am alone... I always will be..." she continued to mumble. Suddenly, Jessica sat straight up, hitting Ryo in his chin as she shouted, "NOO!"

Ryo sat back, starteled, rubbing his chin. "Jessica, hey, are you alright?"

She turned to look at him. "R-Ryo? Oh, Ryo..." she cried as she hugged onto him. Ryo wrapped his arms back around her.

"Hey, whats wrong? What happened? You're ok now."

Jessica continued to cry into is shoulder as the hideously bad drem kept replaying itself over and over again in her head. "Noo..." she sobbed.

"'No' what?" Ryo asked gently.

"This figure... and... he said that... bad stuff, Ryo. Lots of bad stuff and he even had pictures... of you guys. And he said that it was all my fault that this was all happening... and he could see into the future and that I would rein over Earth and netherworld with... Zagoto..." just the thought made her sick to her stomach. "And then... then he tried to... to tell me that I was alone... all alone... and that I always have been and will be all alone..." she cried.

"Oh, Jessica, none of that is true, none of it is true at all! Couldn't you see that it's just a trick to get you over to their side? Jessica, look at me," he said as he turned her to face him. "You will never be alone as long as we're still here and alive... and nothing that you will EVER say or do will make us leave you all aloneby yourself... and what that figure showed you was just illusions. They aren't real... Jessica! Are you listening to me?"

Jessica looked up and nodded slightly. "Y-yes... but they were so real..." she said as her eyes started to get heavy again. Jessica leaned back against Ryo as sleep overtook her and she fell back to sleep this time, not unconscious.

"Jessica..." Ryo looked down on her and then turned his head slightly around as he heard a noise come from behind him. Rowen sat up and looked at Ryo and Jessica.

"Ryo... hey! Is she..."

"Yeah, she's awake, just... asleep again I guess." Ryo smiled slightly. "What are you doing up so early? Aren't you usually our late guy in the group? Mr. I-Don't-Get-Up-Before-Ten-Unless-I-Have-To?"

Rowen chuckeled to himself. "Yeah, it's still the same person. Though sometimes I do wonder myself... well, did you get a good night's sleep? You crashed pretty early, and Kento soon after."

"Actually, no I didn't go to bed that early. I stayed up listening to everything... but I couldn't hear too much over Kento's stomach." Ryo gently sat Jessica back down on her blanket and covered her up with his own as he walked over and sat down next to Rowen.

"Hey, well, is everything alright then? I woke up mostly because I thought I heard a scream."

"Yeah. That was Jessica. Something got into her head. I think it's something from Zagoto's doings. Telling her that he could see the future... he had and we all died... that she was alone, had always been alone, and would always be alone... he even showed her some cheap illusions to try to trick her into believing they were real..."

"I see what they're trying to do. They're trying to trick her into believing that we don't care about her and that we're just using her for her armor. And that they can take care of her and love her and make her feel wanted and accepted. So they are the ones who can use her and her armor."

Both stared out thoughtfully as the sky lightened to shades of pink. 'I don't think that I've even gone to sleep... have I?' Ryo thought. He couldn't remember anything past the day that he was living. Everything was just a living bore to him now. 'I don't... I just don't know what to do... heh, some leader I am...'

The two just sat there for the longest while, watching the sun rise and turned as the others started to wake also. "Hey you two early birds! Rowen, what are you doing up? Aren't you usually the last one up? Mr. -"

"I know, I know, Mr. I-Don't-Get-Up-Before-Ten-Unless-I-Have-To, I've already been drilled on this one by Ryo." he smirked at Mia.

"Well," she said, looking at him, "I Was going to say Mr. Oh-My-God-I'm-Actually-UP-Before-Ten-Somebody-Shoot-Me, but..."

"I like Ryo's better."

"Why, you little..." she threatened as the two started laughing. Ryo, witnessing the whole situation, couldn't help laughing a bit himself.

"Yeah, Mia, sorry but I beat you to it!!" he smirked at her.

"What is this? Gang up on Mia day?"

"Actually, I think its more like Gang up on Rowen day." Rowen joked.

"Hey, you aren't leaving ME out of all the early... very early... extremely early... very early morning fun, are you?" said Kento as he groggily walked up to the three, realising how extremely early it still was.

"I guess you're not so accostiomed to getting up quite this early either, huh Kento?" Rowen said, slapping him on the back.

Kento scowled at them. "Why is it that here recently, everyone has been doing that to meee?" he wailed. "And yes, I have gotten up this early on my o- hey, what are YOU doing up?" he said, glancing sideways at Rowen.

"I-eh... times change, I guess..." he laughed.

"Yeah, ain't that the truth..." Kento said as he seated himself next to Rowen and Ryo.

"Oh, hey, Jessica! Is she awake yet? Has anyone heard anything from her yet?"

"Yes, actually she woke up not too long ago. But then fell back asleep. She wasn't awake for only all of five minutes maybe. Not very long. Just long enough to tell me about the visions that she had. Well, not even visions really. This dream that she had, I guess you could call it."

"Dream?" Mia said.

"I think Zagoto is using some evil to get into her head and disillusion her... tricking her into believeing stuff that isn't true... that COULDN'T be true..." Ryo turned his head away from the group.

"Well, we'll discuss this when the others awake.."

"We are," Cale said as he, Kayura, Sage, and Cye walked over to the group.

Rowen stood up and turned to face them. "Before you say anything, I know that I'm up early so you don't need to tease me about it. That role has already been taken by Mia, Kento, and Ryo."

The others just looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Ehh... ok I'll sit back down now..." he said as he turned and resumed his seat.

"So, what's the plan now, guys?" Kento said.

"Plan?"

"Yeah... the one that you were up all night talking about..."

"That doesn't mean that we're any closer to finding the entrance to his second castle as we were before." Mia explained.

"Yeah but still..."

"Less talking, more moving, guys. We can't stay at one place for too long with fear of being spotted and attacked upon. We'd better be packed up and leaving." Ryo said. He stood up and stretched then grabbed the nearest vacant blanket and folded it, placing it neatly in Jessica's knapsack after he was done. The group had everything good to go except for Jessica.

"What are we going to do about her?" Kayura asked. "Wait until she wakes up, wake er up, or carry her? I don't think that we want to risk waiting, though."

"Yeah, I agree. Just so that we don't get caught up or anything by the warriors or Zagoto." Cye said.

"Well... alright." Ryo said as Sage bent to pick Jessica up, Cye gently picked up Magic, and Mia grabbed her knapsack as the group started down the tree-lined pathway.

"What we need to be looking for is some type of deformity along the landscape... something that might suggest that there's a different structure underneath." Mia told them.

The group silently walked down along the path, scoping out the land. But nothing showed up despite their efforts. By mid-afternoon, the group was exhausted and was ready to take a break from their grueling search, but none wanted to give up until something had been found. A new lead in their search. But still nothing came up. It wasn't until late afternoon that they finally did stop.

"Phew, all this searching is really working up an apetite!" Kento said.

"I hear ya, buddy!" Rowen grinned.

"Mmmmm I can taste it now..." Kento said, closing his eyes. "Nice cold yummy french vanilla icecream smothered in smooth, rich chocolate syrup, topped off with caramel topping, hot fudge, and chopped nuts..."

"Don't forget sprinkles!! An ice-cream fantasy isn't complete without sprinkles!" Rowen added.

"And a bananna! I love bananna's with mine. Just makes them taste better..." Mia said.

"Yeah, that sounds good... aahhh..." Kento said, his eyes still closed.

"C'mon Kento! That's just going to make you hungrier than you already are..." Ryo scolded mildly.

Kento opened his eyes and looked at Ryo. "Well, it can't hurt to THINK of food..."

"It does if that's the only thing that you EVER think about!!" Sage teased. "You and your food... it's enought to make a poor man rich!"

"Heh heh heh...."

"Anyways, people, let's get going again. We have soo much ground to cover, and not much time left in which to do it in..." Ryo started on down the road but stop and turned abruptly when Sage called out.

"Guys! I think... I think she's waking! Again!" he said excitedly as he kneeled and laid her gently down on the round as the group surrounded her. Her eyes fluttered softly open as her hand flew up to shield her eyes from the bright afternoon sun.

"Jessica! You're alright?"

"Y-yeah, I... I think so..." she said and tried to sit up. She leaned against her knees and looked up at the faces around her. "Wha-what happened? What day is it? How long was I... was I asleep?"

"A day at least. Day and-a-half at most."

"R-really? Wow..."

"Do you... remember what happened?" Mia asked. "Back in the castle?"

"Yes... why aren't we in the castle anymore? I thought we were going to get Zagoto...what happened to that idea?" Jessica asked.

"Jessica! This is important that you remember what happened. Do you remember what happened during that battle in the castle?" Cale said.

"Y-yes... I do. And that dream that I had..." Jessica turned to Ryo. "It was horrible..."

Ryo bent down to his knees in front of Jessica until they were eye-to-eye. "You do know that it was just a plan by Zagoto to try to get you away from us, don't you? You know that you're not alone and you never were alone. You do know that, don't you?"

"Y-yes... but those pictures... they seemed so real..."

"Those were only their poor excuse for illusions to trick you into believing what they said. What they said was not even true at all." Ryo said.

"B-but... how do I know that you're the ones lying to me? Tricking me into believing something that isn't true..." A look of dread spread over her face as she realised what she had just said. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that, or what got into me... of course I know what he said wasn't true at all. It's just..."

"It's ok. We know. Now... about what happened..."

Jessica nodded from her spot on the floor and leaned her head against the top of her knees. "My armor... right? Well... I remember everything now..." she said sadly as she looked over at Magic who was still unconscious in Cye's arms. "I remember a time, many years ago... many many years ago before any of you were even thought of to have existed, with the exception of Kayura, Cale, Dais, and Sekhmet, who are all many years older than you five and I.

"Anyway, back when I was younger, for as long as I could remember, Zagoto ruled over the Netherworld and earth as well. I was about five at the time, but I can still remember it all so clearly... Talpa was fighting with Zagoto for power over the two worlds but retreated when he sensed Zagoto's awesome power... where if it was great then, so many years ago, then it will be extremely great now... At five, my mother, who wore the Armor of Wind at the time, battled against Zagoto and tried to defeat him. But she wasn't strong enough and she was... killed. I saw her die on the battlefield. The last thing she ever said to me was, 'Jessica, my darling darling daughter, take this amulet and forever protect it. When the time is right, you shall be freed from this heathen prision. I fear that I must leave you now, please don't forget and I will always be with you...'"

There was silence for a minute while a tear trickled down the side of Jessica's face. Then she continued on with her story.

"My mother's armor, the Armor of Wind, left without a trace, then only thing left behind was this necklace... My mother, see, she was a sorceress, full blooded. My father, though, was just a mere mortal who didn't have any powers at all. So when I was born I was blessed with only les than half of my mother's maical powers. My powers were much less limited than hers, which were unlimited. Zagoto killed my father as well but decided for whatever reason to keep me alive. Well, the ancient... ha came to me when I was nine and gave me the necklace that contained the orb... he told me of the necklace's power and told me that I should never reveal to anybody except the other mystical armors of it's secret.

"He taught me how to summon my armor and taught me how to fight. He trained me well, trained me for three years. But really, I didn't need any training because in reality it was for mt mother and father that I was fighting for, not earth or human, or even myself. I had no friends back then. Back then I WAS alone... except for the ancient. I was a child who grew up knowing the evil that faced her... a child who knew what her future was going to be like unless she did something now to change it. So at twelve I challanged Zagoto to a battle but he just laughed at me. He said that if my mother was so easy to defeat on the battlefield, that how would I be any different? He just laughed me off but that was a very big and costly mistake on his account. I defeated him that day, I remember it so well. Or so I thought. But for the time being it was safe once again and peace was restored.

"Talpa noticed that Zagoto had been defeated by an awesome new force and he knew that he just had to posess it and own it for himself. So he returned to the Netherworld in search of me. At thirteen he captured me and pulled me unwillingly into the dynasty. He wished to control the power of my armor. But it seemed to have... disappeared strangely. Only I knew of where it had gone, but I was not about to let him know that. So he held me in captivity for three years... three years of hell... Eventually, after enough of their brainwashing, I became convinced that I was one of them. But I knew that I still couldn't tell him where the armor had gone... I knew that I couldn't tell him where it really was, or else something very bad would happen...

"But, during those three years, I met a man. While in the dynasty I met Magic. But not the Magic as you see him now... he was a man. I met him while I was still uncertain of my future. I was only fourteen or fifteen at the time... that I do not remember. Talpa knew of us, but he did not interfere because he saw that it was not efecting my loyalty or anything to him. He permitted to us continuing to see each other. Magic was good, as I was evil. But he saw the goodness within me and that I was only evil on the outside. He helped me to realise Talpa's evil and helped me to become good again. Then, when I was sixteen, Talpa found out about my plan to escape and he stormed out of his castle, planning to kill me. Magic sensed what he was going to do and ran to me, telling me to leave before he could do anything. But it was too late. Talpa swung out at me and would have ended my life right there..." Jessica paused, more tears falling from her eyes.

The others looked around, not daring to say a word until her whole story was finished. The story was hitting them all as a huge shock, and they all felt pity for the girl who has been through soo much and experienced soo much that someone should not have to experience in a lifetime.

Jessica took a deep breath and dared to continue on, "Talpa would have killed me right there... but... Magic. He... he jumped in front of me and took the blow for me. Talpa just... just laughed. I started screaming at him and he told me that next time... next time maybe I'd have second thoughts before EVER thinking of leaving him. That my one true place to be was with the dynasty and to serve for him forever. He laughed and said that should teach me to ever question him... or the dynasty... that Magic was so stupid as to sacrifice himself...

"Talpa left. I sat there crying. He was dying and there was not a thing I could do about it. Then the ancient one came. He came and said that he could help Magic... heal him so he wouldn't die... but he couldn't be in his normal human form. He would forever have to be in the form of a cat. That's why he made him so rare. A rare black Korat with two white front paws... Most other Korats are just plain grey... Then... then the ancient one came and helped me escape from the dynasty. While I was in the dynasty is how I know Cale, Dais, and Sekhmet. I never met Kayura, but I've heard of her a lot.

"The ancient one took me and Magic and he sealed us in this protective bubble-like thing... It was weird. Then he sealed us in an eternal sleep between the two dimension barriers where time did not exist, therefore we did not age the whole 150 years we were up there..."

"150 years?!?" Ryo whispered silently to himself. "That's... impossible..."

"So, now, here I am awakened after 150 years to fight off Zagoto again. But now there are more than one thing driving me to defeat him. Not only the death of my mother and father, but the death of Dais, Sekhmet, the destruction of this land, the pain caused by him to my friends, for Magic and the destruction that he's done... but most of all, for me..." Jessica stopped talking and looked down at the ground. "And that," she said, looking back up, "is my story..."

The others just sat there with quiet expressions on their faces. They didn't know what to say.

"J-Jessica. That-that's amazing... 150 years... I don't know if I would be able to do it." Ryo said, trying to comfort her. "At least you still have Magic though... at least he didn't die."

"Yeah..." she said quietly. She looked up at Magic who was still laying in Cye's arms. She reached up for him and Cye handed him to her. Jessica cradeled Magic in her lap, but he still would not wake up. 'Please, oh please wake up, Magic! You've just got to... please be ok...' she said silently. Jessica stood up. "I think... I think that we should go now..."

"Right." Cye said as Ryo stood up next to Jessica. 'What a sad life she's led... but a very heroic one as well. I can't imagine having to go through that myself...'

The group started walking back down the dirt road, searching for some sign of a hidden castle. It could be hidden anywhere, and with not knowing of what lies around each bend, they trudged on still...

* * *

[Part VII][1]

   [1]: jes_chap7.htm



End file.
